Scientists Discovered The First Known Neanderthal Family’s Remains In A Siberian Cave
Last week, an international team of scientists unveiled one of the most significant genetic studies of a Neanderthal population ever conducted.
The research, published in Nature, also detailed a remarkable finding in a Siberian cave. There, the team discovered the remains of a Neanderthal family– making it the earliest known family to date.
The team concluded that the Neanderthals had lived together over fifty thousand years ago on the rocky clifftops in Siberia. And unfortunately, they died either during a turbulent storm or from starvation.
The familial remains found included thirteen Neanderthal individuals. Seven were males, six were females, and five were children.
And they were discovered in the Altai Mountains located in southern Siberia. Eleven individuals were found in the Chagyrskaya Cave; meanwhile, two were found in the Okladnikov Cave.
Interestingly, the researchers also revealed that the eleven Neanderthals from Chagyrskaya were closely related.
They discovered one father and a teenage daughter, as well as a set of second-degree relatives– who may have been either a niece or nephew or an aunt or uncle.
The father was also a close relative of the two adult males found at Chagyrskaya. So, the scientists strongly believe that at least some of the individuals were alive at the same time.
One of the most remarkable findings of this study, though, is how untouched the Chagyrsakaya Cave remained– a true marvel in the archaeological field.
glazunoff – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purpose only, pictured above is a geyser lake in Altai, which is in Siberia
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“Chagyrskaya Cave is basically a moment in time fifty-four thousand years ago when this community lived and died in this cave,” said Richard G. Roberts, one of the study’s co-authors.
“In most archaeological sites, things accumulate slowly and tend to get chewed over by hyenas or something else like that. So, you don’t really get sites that full of material.”
The cave was reportedly filled with everything from Neanderthal bones to animal bones and artifacts– prompting Roberts to dub the site “a moment literally frozen in time.
To read the study’s complete findings, visit the link here.
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