Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com –<\/strong> An international team of scientists has analyzed ancient mitochondrial DNA extracted from eight Neanderthal teeth found in Stajnia Cave, Poland. This research, conducted on remains from a single site north of the Carpathians, has, for the first time, reconstructed the genetic profile of a small group of Neanderthals who lived during the same ancient period.<\/p>\n Background: \u00a0Stajnia Cave, Poland Credit: M. \u017barski, Polish Geological Institute. The rest of the image was created by AncientPages.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThis is an extraordinary result because, for the first time, we are able to observe a small group of at least seven Neanderthals from Central-Eastern Europe who lived around 100,000 years ago,\u201d says\u00a0Andrea Picin, professor at the University of Bologna and coordinator of the research. \u201cIn most cases, Neanderthal genetic data come from single fossils or from remains scattered across different sites and periods. At Stajnia, by contrast, it has been possible to reconstruct a small group of individuals, providing for the first time a coherent genetic picture of Neanderthals in this part of Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe had known for some time that Stajnia Cave preserved exceptional evidence, but these results exceeded our expectations,\u201d say Wioletta Nowaczewska of the University of Wroc\u0142aw and\u00a0Adam Nadachowski\u00a0of the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals of the Polish Academy of Sciences, co-authors of the study.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing able to identify such an ancient small group of Neanderthals in such a complex site is an important achievement for Polish research and for the study of Neanderthals in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n The discovery also improves our understanding of how a specific Neanderthal maternal lineage was distributed across western Eurasia. The mitochondrial DNA of the Stajnia Neanderthals belongs to the same branch as that of individuals found in the Iberian Peninsula, south-eastern France, and the northern Caucasus. This indicates that the genetic lineage was once widespread in the region before being replaced by mitochondrial lineages characteristic of more recent Neanderthals.<\/p>\n \u201cA particularly fascinating aspect is that two teeth belonging to juvenile individuals and one belonging to an adult share the same mitochondrial DNA,\u201d adds\u00a0Mateja Hajdinjak, co-author of the article and researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. \u201cThis suggests that these individuals might be closely related to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n For the first time, the research reconstructs the genetic profile of a small group of Neanderthals from the same site, north of the Carpathians, who lived during the same ancient chronological phase. Credit: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology<\/em><\/p>\n Another important aspect of the study concerns\u00a0the comparison with the Neanderthal fossil Thorin, discovered in Mandrin Cave in France, which carries a mitochondrial genome similar to that of the Stajnia Neanderthals and has so far been assigned to a chronology of around 50,000 years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cOur study is a reminder that the oldest chronologies must be treated with great caution,\u201d explains\u00a0Sahra Talamo, professor at the University of Bologna and co-coordinator of the study. \u201cWhen radiocarbon values approach the limit of calibration, it is essential not to assign more precision than the data can actually support. In such cases, the comparison between archaeology, radiocarbon dating, and genetics becomes crucial.\u201d<\/p>\n From an archaeological perspective, this discovery supports the view that Central-Eastern Europe was not a marginal region in Neanderthal history. Instead, it was a crucial area for studying population movements, biological relationships, and the transmission of technological traditions during the Middle Paleolithic. In this context, Stajnia Cave and southern Poland serve as important reference points for reconstructing not only Neanderthal biology, but also their mobility patterns and the connections between groups spread across large parts of Europe.<\/p>\n The study was published in the journal Current Biology<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n Written by\u00a0Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com<\/strong>\u00a0Staff Writer<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Genetic](\"https:\/\/www.ancientpages.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/neanderthalsstajnacave.jpg\")
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