by Archaeologists reconstructed the face of a Belgian Stone Age and found that she had blue eyes and a dark complexion and shed more light on the descent of modern Europeans.
The fossil remains of the prehistoric woman were excavated in 1988 in the Margaux cave near Dinant.
Earlier studies indicate that she lived in the Meus Valley about 10,500 years ago and that the same Western European Jäger-Summer population and Great Britain’s famous Cheddar man belonged.
Now genetic and archaeological data, which were evaluated by the Belgian Ghent University, have made it possible to reconstruct not only their face, but also their living conditions.
An interdisciplinary team of scientists, including archaeologists, anthropologists and geneticists, worked with Dutch artists on the facial reconstruction.
The facial reconstruction of the university’s regional view of the university’s Roam project shows that the Margaux woman had a dark complexion and blue eyes, just like Cheddar Man, who is the oldest modern human specimen Great Britain that has been discovered so far.
A DNA analysis of his remains from 2018 showed that he had blue eyes and dark skin that revealed unprecedented insights into the appearance of old British and that we all come “from somewhere in Africa”.
The Cheddar man Fossil, who was discovered in a Somerset cave in 1903, showed that the old Brit had “dark to black” skin, blue eyes and dark, curly hair.
The recent findings indicate that the Margaux woman had slightly lighter skin than most other people from stone times analyzed in Western Europe who say that researchers are a “subtle but important detail”.
Scientists ended the potential eye and skin colors of the Stone Age woman based on the analysis of the DNA from parts of their skull.
“So far, the phenotypical diversity of the European hunters and collectors has only been known from a small number of fossils and was considered rather homogeneous,” said geneticist Maïté Rivollat in a statement.
“The skin pigmentation of the Margaux woman indicates a stronger complexity of skin pigmentation in these populations and was more heterogeneous than previously assumed,” project manager Isabelle de Groote told Live Science.
The latest studies also suggest that the life of the Margaux woman was mainly spent outdoors. Based on the remains of bowls, pigments and other tools that can be found at the cave point.
However, scientists say that further investigations are necessary to recognize further information on their lifestyle and appearance.
“The actual skin tone and eye color are difficult to recognize … there is no precise answer in the old DNA,” said de Groote.
