Europeans once had dark skin and hair

2025-07-24 07:23:00, Kuriozitete CNA

Europeans once had dark hair, dark eyes and dark skin. By the Iron Age, about 3,000 years ago, people with light hair, light eyes and fair skin were the exception, according to research by Silvia Ghirotto of the University of Ferrara in Italy.

According to this study, the genes responsible for lighter skin, hair and eyes were very rare in early Europeans around 14,000 years ago, during the late Paleolithic period.

Evolutionary advantage?
Today there are regions in Northern Europe, in countries like Norway, Sweden and Finland, where over 80% of the population is blonde. In the rest of Europe, blonde hair is more of an exception, as most Europeans have brown hair. Worldwide, only about 2 percent of people are blonde.

According to the study, light skin represented a major advantage for early hunters. In weaker sunlight, they may have been able to absorb more vitamin D, which is necessary for healthy bones, teeth, and muscles.

However, lighter eye color did not have any major advantage. According to Ghirotto, blue or green eyes are due to genetic chance or sexual selection.

Tough search for usable DNA
Ghirotto's team analyzed 348 DNA samples from archaeological sites in 34 countries in Western Europe and Asia. The oldest sample, 45,000 years old, comes from the Ust'-Ishim individual, discovered in Western Siberia in 2008.

The DNA sample from the approximately 9,000-year-old individual SF12 from Sweden was also very important to the study.

But many of the DNA samples examined were so damaged or incomplete ("degraded") that researchers could not directly determine pigmentation characteristics (such as skin, hair, and eye color).

Instead, they used statistical methods to draw conclusions about these characteristics.

Where did Europeans come from?
About 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, the first Homo sapiens arrived and settled in Europe. Genetically, they were not yet very far removed from their modern ancestors in Africa, meaning they mostly carried the genes for dark skin, hair, and eyes.

It is thought that there were exceptions, but most people in Europe had dark skin and dark hair, even during the Copper Age around 5,000 years ago.

According to DNA samples, 63 percent of early Europeans had dark skin, while only 8 percent had light skin.

In northern Europe, such as Sweden, there was a concentration of people with light hair and eyes around 3,000 years ago. But how this clustering occurred—for example, whether the development of lighter pigmentation was related to climate change or migrations into Europe—is not known for sure. This requires further study.

The eventual advantages of the evolution of skin, hair and eye color, from dark to light, have not yet been definitively clarified./ DW