There are many museum reconstructions and depictions of the Mesolithic hunter-gatherer roaming the vastness of Europe, and this hunter-gatherer looks like a modern European with fair skin.
However, it turns out that this popular image is not true.
2006, in northwestern Spain, in a Cantabrian cave near Leon, 2 skeletons of Mesolithic people were found (Middle Stone Age - the period between Paleolithic and Neolithic). Both died around the age of 30, and their remains are fairly well preserved in the cool environment of the cave.
The age of the skeletons and other finds, such as the drilled teeth of a deer, which apparently served as an adornment for men's clothing in a threaded form, testified that these are people of the Middle Stone Age who lived before the emergence of agriculture and were engaged in hunting and gathering.
DNA testing of a 7,000-year-old wisdom tooth taken from one of the skeletons was the first study of the genome of European inhabitants of the above period.
Inigo Olalde of the Institute for Biological Evolution in Barcelona, who led the research, published the results of the study in the journal Nature; they gave very interesting information about what the prehistoric man of Europe looked like in the era of gathering and hunting.
It took several tries before it was possible to recreate the complete genome from the DNA of the wisdom tooth. The end result shocked researchers.
The biggest surprise was the presence of African genes for dark skin color. How dark - it was not possible to establish.
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Equally shocking was the discovery that the man was blue-eyed.
The blue-eye gene was most interesting to researchers, as it was previously thought to be a later trait brought to the continent 2,000 years later by people who were already engaged in agriculture.
The presence of genetic markers for blue eyes means that Mesolithic man is the oldest example of a European with blue eyes.
Dr. Lalueza-Fox said the result was even more shocking to the team than the color of the Mesolithic human:
A 2008 study concluded that blue eyes most likely originated as a genetic mutation approximately 10,000 years ago.
The earliest examples of this trait are believed to have originated in people who lived around the Black Sea.
A 2014 study found that anyone with blue eyes has ancestors that belonged to the family in which this mutation first occurred. This means that people with the blue-eye gene traveled throughout Europe before agriculture took over from hunting and gathering. This also fits with the theory that agriculture also spread from east to west.
No one knows for sure why blue eyes became common among ancient Europeans.
A drawing of what a Stone Age man might look like based on a study of his genome.
There are two explanations: it may have helped prevent eye disorders in low-light European winters, or blue eyes were seen as more sexually attractive, and the wearer of blue eyes was favored as a partner, which caused the symptom to spread.
Finally, it's worth noting that researchers have discovered more about the Mesolithic man than just his appearance. He had the same immune system as people living today - and this was also a surprise - and also hypolactasia, or lactose intolerance.
