“Unlocking the Past: New Discoveries Reveal That Europe’s Ancient Inhabitants Were Surprisingly Dark-Skinned!”
The study explored this theory as well. It’s possible, even likely, that before human societies settled down and focused on agriculture, they were eating more foods that were high in vitamin D. As the human diet gradually changed, however, it became more genetically advantageous to synthesize it through the skin. More importantly, this did not happen all at once.
“The shift towards lighter pigmentations turned out to be all but linear in time and place, and slower than expected,” researchers wrote in the new study, “with half of the individuals showing dark or intermediate skin colors well into the Copper and Iron ages.”
The study’s authors also noted a “peak” in incidence of light eye pigmentation in Mesolithic times, with an accelerated change as Neolithic farmers became more prevalent across Western Eurasia.
How Additional Factors Like Sexual Selection And Genetic Drift Also Played A Role In Changing Skin Tones Over Time
These gradual changes help to explain discoveries such as the Cheddar Man, a dark-skinned, blue-eyed man who lived in Britain 10,000 years ago. When he was first found in Gough’s Cave in 1903, researchers assumed he likely had fair hair, light eyes, and paler skin, simply on the basis that he was European. A 2018 DNA analysis, however, found otherwise and concluded that he had dark skin after all.
Royal Pavilion & Museums; Brighton & HoveA facial reconstruction of one of the last Neanderthal women before they died out.
Another complicating factor noted in the study is that lighter skin could have been prevalent in European Neanderthals well before early humans ever arrived there — which can be seen in several facial reconstructions based on remains from prehistoric Europe — meaning the genetic development of pale features is far more complex than previous research suggested.
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