The mountains of north-west Calabria were once home to a Bronze Age community and may have held a startling family secret. An international team of researchers from the Harvard Research Center on the Ancient Mediterranean. Max Planck in Germany and the University of Bologna in Italy reconstructed the social and genetic profiles of a 3,500-year-old proto-Apennine community for the first time in a recent study published in the journal Natural communications.
Using archaeological finds discovered at the Grotto della Monaca, a remarkable cave and archaeological site in southern Italy, the research team identified the cultural traditions, population history and kinship patterns of this Bronze Age community.
“Situated over 600 meters above sea level in the Pollino massif, Grotta della Monaca continues to reveal key evidence about the first complex societies of southern Italy – and, more broadly, about the biological and cultural roots of human diversity,” said Felice Larocca, speleoarchaeologist and director of research at Grotta della Monaca. in a press release.
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The Mystery of the Bronze Age Cave
Previous finds from the Grotto della Monaca suggest that the site was used for iron and copper mining, as well as for funerals.
Researchers extracted DNA from human remains and conducted tests. The results showed that the remains dated to between 1780 and 1380 BC, helping the research team pinpoint where in the Mediterranean Bronze Age this community is suitable.
“Our analysis shows that the Grotta della Monaca population had strong genetic similarities to Early Bronze Age groups from Sicily, but lacked the eastern Mediterranean influences found among their Sicilian contemporaries,” Francesco Fontani, first author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard's Max Planck Research Center for the Ancient Mediterranean, said in a press release.
“This suggests that, while in contact across the Strait of Messina, Tyrrhenian Calabria followed its own demographic and cultural trajectories in prehistoric times,” Fontani added.
What DNA Says About Bronze Age Societies
In addition to the age of the community, the DNA results showed that although this community lived in mountain caves, it was not completely isolated from other groups of people. At least two people from the cave shared DNA with communities living in northern Italy.
There were ancestral lines from Anatolian Neolithic farmers, European hunter-gatherers and Steppe herders. This community likely consumed milk and other dairy products despite the presence of genetic variants associated with lactose intolerance in adults.
“[This] “These individuals developed dietary strategies that allowed them to thrive in challenging mountain environments despite lacking genetic lactose tolerance.”
An unexpected find
By combining research data on archaeological and anthropological finds with DNA evidence the research team also identified burial structures and burial practices based on gender and kinship.
The most shocking discovery, according to the research team, was incestuous mating, the first of its kind documented in prehistoric Europe.
“This discovery highlights the difference between unambiguous biological evidence and its social implications,” Alyssa Mittnick, lead researcher in the archaeogenetics department at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and co-senior author of the study, said in a press release. “This exceptional case may indicate culture-specific behavior in this small community, but its significance ultimately remains uncertain.”
According to the research team, the finds from the Grotto della Monaca rewrite our understanding of the caves of the Proto-Apennine culture. This cave was once considered an isolated space, but it appears to have been a sacred burial site that also symbolized family and community ties.
Read more: Ancient kitchen utensils confirm horses were domesticated in Sicily in the Early Bronze Age
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