How white skin evolved in Europeans: Pale complexions only spread in the region 8,000 years ago, study claims

Humans around the world display myriad skin tones and eye colors that are fascinating and wonderful in their variety. Research continues on to see how people have acquired the features they have now and when to complete our puzzle of ancient human history.

New anthropology research now suggests that light-colored skin and the tallness associated with European genetics are relatively recent traits to the continent.

An international team of researchers as headed by Harvard University’s Dr. Iain Mathieson put forth a study at the 84th annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists recently.

Based on 83 human samples from Holocene Europe as analyzed under the 1000 Genomes Project, it is now found that for the majority of the time that humans have lived in Europe, the people had dark skin, and the genes signifying light skin only appear within the past 8,000 years.

This recent and relatively quick process of natural selection suggests to researchers that the traits which spread rapidly were advantageous within that environment, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

This dramatic evidence suggests modern Europeans do not appear as their long-ancient ancestors did.

Spreading Genetics

The samples are derived from a wide range of ancient populations, rather than a few individuals, and they supplied researchers with five specific genes associated with skin color and diet.

AAAS reports that the “modern humans who came out of Africa to originally settle Europe about 40,000 years are presumed to have had dark skin, which is advantageous in sunny latitudes.

And the new data confirm that about 8500 years ago, early hunter-gatherers in Spain, Luxembourg, and Hungary also had darker skin: They lacked versions of two genes—SLC24A5 and SLC45A2—that lead to depigmentation and, therefore, pale skin in Europeans today. 

Then, the first farmers from the Near East arrived in Europe; they carried both genes for light skin. As they interbred with the indigenous hunter-gatherers, one of their light-skin genes swept through Europe, so that central and southern Europeans also began to have lighter skin. The other gene variant, SLC45A2, was at low levels until about 5800 years ago when it swept up to high frequency.”

This differed from the situation farther north. Ancient remains from southern Sweden 7,700 years ago were found to have the gene variants indicating light skin and blonde hair, and another gene, HERC2/OCA2, which causes blue eyes.

This indicated to researchers that ancient hunter-gatherers of northern Europe were already pale and blue-eyed. This light skin trait would have been advantageous in the regions of less sunlight.

Natural Selection

Mathieson and colleagues do not specify in the study why the genes were favored and spread as quickly as they did, but it is suggested that Vitamin D absorption likely played a role. Ancient hunter-gatherers in Europe also could not digest milk 8,000 years ago. The ability to do so only came about 4,300 years ago.

Paleoanthropologist Nina Jablonski of Pennsylvania State University notes that people in less sunny climates required different skin pigmentations in order to absorb and synthesize Vitamin D. The pale skin was advantageous in the region, as well was the ability to digest milk.

“Natural selection has favored two genetic solutions to that problem—evolving pale skin that absorbs UV more efficiently or favoring lactose tolerance to be able to digest the sugars and vitamin D naturally found in milk,” writes AAAS.

This new research follows related studies on pre-agricultural European genomes and modern humans in Europe before the rise of farming.

DNA taken from the wisdom tooth of a 7,000-year-old human found in Spain in 2006 overturned the popular image of light-skinned European hunter-gatherers. The study revealed that the individual had dark hair and the dark-skinned genes of an African. However, the man had blue eyes, an unexpected find by researchers. The hunter-gatherer is the oldest known individual in Europe to have blue eyes.

Previous research published in 2008 found that the earliest mutations in the eye-color genes that led to the evolution of blue eyes probably occurred about 10,000 years ago in individuals living in around the Black Sea.

The surprising aspect of the findings is that while it is fundamental to natural selection that advantageous genetic attributes spread, it is not often a speedy process. The study shows that these genetic pale skin traits swept across Europe speedily, and that phenomenon is of particular interest to researchers.

The preprint study “Eight thousand years of natural selection in Europe” by Mathieson and colleagues has been published in the online journal BioRxiv. These new findings shed light on humanity’s genetic past, giving us a clearer vision of our ancient origins.

Gladiators were mostly Vegetarians and they were fatter than you may think

What better epitomizes the ideal male physique than the Roman gladiator? Gladiators were the movie stars of the first century, so famous that free men lined up to try their luck in the arena.

In reality, what we know about gladiators’ diets and physiques suggests that they had a very different physical appearance than those depicted in classical art and popular culture.

Scholars from the Medical University of Vienna in Austria and the University of Bern in Switzerland found that the Gladiator’s diet was grain-based and mostly meat-free, based on data from the gladiator cemetery in Ephesus, present-day Turkey. Sure, this does not mean they didn’t eat meat.

In Roman times, the entertainment industry was very important. After all, there were over 100 gladiator schools spread across the empire. The majority of schools were concentrated around the Colosseum. The largest school, Ludus Magnus, was connected to Colosseum with a tunnel.

Pliny, the famous Roman author, referred to gladiators as hordearii, which translates as “barley eaters.” The Romans believed that eating barley would help to strengthen your body. They ate oatmeal and dried fruit in addition to barley and beans.

Also, an examination of gladiators’ bones also found evidence they drank a drink made from plant ashes. This ash drink was a form of health-boosting tonic to help gladiators recover after fighting and training.

Gladiators were significant investments for their owners, therefore why lack meat in their diet?

Having more fat meant having a better chance of surviving in the arena. An extra layer of fat provided nerve and muscle protection. As a result, cut wounds were less deadly.

Being overweight had the added benefit of making wounds more likely to be shallow, allowing gladiators to continue fighting even as blood poured from their bodies. What a spectacle for the onlookers!

Given they belonged to such a civilized and sophisticated society, the Romans’ deep attraction to extreme violence remains surprising and strange. Undoubtedly, bloody, brutal, but popular gladiatorial contests were the dark side of Roman civilization.

When using extremely sharp weapons, gladiators fought without much to no body armor. Trainers didn’t like seeing their gladiators die quickly after months of training, so they gave them the armor that any fighter could wear, regardless of armor: fat.

As a result, gladiators didn’t appear to be strong, athletic men with steel abs.

The majority of gladiators were condemned prisoners or enslaved people whose athletic prowess was the only thing separating them from death. The fighting was ferocious and bloody. Stamina and the ability to recover quickly were critical.

Early gladiator fights began in the 3rd century B.C.E. as ritual blood offerings to the spirits of recently departed nobles. After the slave revolt of Spartacus in 73 BC, the State assumed greater control of public games (ludi), and large numbers of gladiators were trained in imperial schools. With the coming to power of Augustus in Rome around 27 BC, it became a regular part of the entertainment cycle in Rome.

Ancient Roman boat from empire’s frontier unearthed in Serbian coal mine

Coal miners in Serbia have discovered the remains of a large wooden boat likely used by the Romans to supply a nearby city and military headquarters on the empire’s frontier.

Archaeologists are waiting for radiocarbon dates of wood from the remains, but they think it may be from the third or fourth centuries A.D. They suggest the ancient vessel carried supplies along small rivers between the Danube River and the Roman city of Viminacium about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) away, which was established early in the first century A.D.

The ancient wreck was unearthed in late July at the Drmno surface coal mine near Kostolac, about 30 miles (50 km) east of Belgrade.

The wooden remains were buried in a layer of silt about 25 feet (8 meters) below the surface. The mine’s coal seam is reached by cutting away the topsoil with a mechanical digger, and the wreck was found on the wall of the cutting.

The miners who found it then contacted archaeologists at the nearby Viminacium archaeological park, which is operated by the Belgrade-based Institute of Archaeology.

Organic materials like wood usually rots when exposed to air, but  the wooden boards and the sand above them were damp, so it seemed that moisture had helped preserve the ancient vessel, a spokesperson told the Serbian website Sve o arheologiji. 

But after it was unearthed, “the great danger was the bright sun, which threatened to dry out the ship too quickly,” so the archaeologist doused the remains with water as they excavated the wreck, the spokesperson noted.

Vital supply boat

The vessel was originally about 65 feet (20 m) long and about 12 feet (3.5 m) wide. It was flat-bottomed, like a barge, and the archaeologists think it was used to carry cargo between the Danube and Viminacium.

“It is likely that the barge was towed from the shore or driven by oars, and in suitable situations the ship could also use the wind to move, using an auxiliary sail,” the archaeologists said.

The wreck is not the first ancient vessel unearthed nearby: The remains of similar boats were found in the area in 2020, indicating the region was once a navigable backwater of the nearby Danube.

Imperial frontier

Viminacium was a combined Roman settlement and military fort, and after A.D. 87 it was the capital of the Roman Empire’s Upper Moesia (Moesia Superior) frontier province.

It was an important trading hub and a regional center of Roman culture. Archaeologists estimate Viminacium had a population of up to 45,000 people, making it one of the largest settlements in the Balkans at that time. 

Several Roman legions were based at the fort there, and the people to the north were notoriously belligerent toward the Romans.

But the city and fort were destroyed by the Huns in 411, who ended Roman rule in much of Europe. Viminacium was rebuilt early in the sixth century by the Byzantine emperor Justinian the Great, but it was destroyed again in 582 by invading Avars from the Eurasian steppe.

Roman treasures 

Viminacium’s ruins were discovered in the 19th century, and it is now one of Serbia’s most important Roman sites, although it’s estimated that only a small percentage of it has been excavated.

Archaeologists have unearthed tens of thousands of artifacts there, including hundreds made from silver and gold, as well as richly decorated tombs, ancient workshops, palaces, temples, streets, plazas and fortifications; Roman baths; a track for racing chariots; and an amphitheater for 12,000 people. 

In 2021 the remains of at least 13 dogs were discovered in the ruins of the amphitheater, where they may have been sacrificed.