The end of the Ice Age in southern Europe: Iberian images in the Palaeolithic to Post-Palaeolithic transition

The documentation of Palaeolithic art in the open air, together with direct dates for parietal art and the study of territories marked by the last hunter groups in southern Europe, supports new interpretations of Palaeolithic art and its continuity in the early Holocene. We provide updated information about the graphic representations in that time of transition, grouped under the term Style V. We also reflect on the chronological framework of some themes and techniques for which dates are available, from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Neolithic. These topics reveal the strength of the Palaeolithic background in more recent versions of prehistoric art, especially the schematic art associated with the first farmers. These new considerations are added to the presence of ­Palaeolithic and Post-Palaeolithic art throughout Europe and all over the world, which shows how symbols are social traits of communication associated with human groups. The study of con­nections through these archaeological items, with their undeniable materiality, is a future challenge that will ­undoubtedly produce interesting results.

Genomic ancestry, diet and microbiomes of Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers from San Teodoro cave (Sicily, Italy)

Recent improvements in the analysis of ancient biomolecules from human remains and associated dental calculus have provided new insights into the prehistoric diet and past genetic diversity of our species. Here we present a multi-omics study, integrating genomic and proteomic analyses of two post-Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) individuals from San Teodoro cave (Italy), to reconstruct their lifestyle and the post-LGM resettlement of Europe. Our analyses show genetic homogeneity in Sicily during the Palaeolithic, representing a hitherto unknown Italian genetic lineage within the previously identified Villabruna cluster. We argue that this lineage took refuge in Italy during the LGM, followed by a subsequent spread to central-western Europe. Multi-omics analysis of dental calculus showed a diet rich of animal proteins which is also reflected on the oral microbiome composition. Our results demonstrate the power of using a multi-omics approach in the study of prehistoric human populations.

4. Peoples of the Arctic

‘Peoples of the Arctic’ focuses on the 4 million people that live north of the Arctic Circle, providing an important distinction between indigenous and settler residents, as over 1 million indigenous peoples live in the eight Arctic states. Archaeological evidence suggests that the first people in the Arctic arrived about 40,000 years ago as there were Upper Palaeolithic hunting communities in north-eastern Siberia. There is considerable diversity of indigenous peoples that have called the Arctic home. Arctic demographers predict that more and more Arctic peoples will be based in towns and cities, but in the Russian and North American Arctic there will still be dispersed and small-scale settlements. Indigenous peoples of the Arctic are culturally, economically, and politically active in all the Arctic states.