Most Europeans had dark skin until recently, he says

Racism and xenophobia are among the problems that have affected European countries the most in recent years. However, a recent study can challenge European understanding.

A research, until recently, Most of the European inhabitants did not have a dark, clear skin. From the DNA analysis of 348 people, researchers concluded that light skin became dominant on this continent.

Dark -skinned Europeans

The study was directed by the Italian geneticist Guido Barbujani from Ferrara University and examined the genomes of 348 people living in Eurasia 1,700 to 45,000 years ago. As a result, 63% is dark skin and only 8% are light -skinned.

Well, Until about 3,000, Europe was mainly experienced by dark or middle -skinned people. The Old DNA argues that there is one between this population up to the Roman period and the Iron Age. This contradicts the understanding of the previous one, which believes it was long before it happens.

In order to understand this process, it is necessary to understand how humanity begins. The first people from Africa had skin, hair and dark eyes, and only when they spread to the colder areas of North Eurasia, they developed clearer tones.

The most accepted theory about how this is, indicates that lighter skin absorbs more ultraviolet radiation than the sun required for the production of vitamin D. This would provide an evolutionary advantage to lighter skin to adapt better in less sunlight.

“We knew that the first formations of the clear skin took place in the Caucasus region about 15,000 years ago,” Guido Barbujani said. In IFLSCİCience, the first light -skinned individuals came from the Anatolian Peninsula in Asia and spread to Europe in the Neolithic period. They were cultivators that changed their populations.

The study also summarized skin pigmentation in the last 45,000 years, fluctuations in hair and eyes. Change would take place relatively linearly both in space and over time, but it would be much longer than previously believed. “We had some evidence that dark skin remained longer than expected in Europe. What we didn’t know was that dark skin remained there until the Iron Age.” He said.

Hypotheses on skin whitening

The analysis pointed out that the feature of the dark skin was found almost everywhere during the Paleolith, a period that ruled about 45,000 to 13,000 years ago. Later, the Mesolithic era, which came after a short time, saw the peak of blue eyes in regions such as Northern Europe, France and Serbia.

He also experienced the first identified individual with light -skinned, blonde hair and blue eyes in Mesolithic. This was confirmed by the discovery of the genome of a Swedish hunter collective living 12,000 years ago.

In the Neolithic period, which already existed about 10,000 to 4,000 years ago, researchers defined dark -skinned people only in most of Eurasia (the mass that formed a common to Europe and Asia).

In the Bronze Age, the authors of the study found an increase in the formation of estimated blue eyes, blonde hair and outdoor skin ından from the genome of four people living in the UK, Hungary, Estonia and Czech Republic.

“We found the first light -skinned example in Sweden Mesolithic, but it comes from more than 50 examples. Things changed later, but very slow, so that the frequency of clear leathers in the Iron Age was equalized with dark skin. In other words, most Europeanly had dark skin for most prehistorically, ”the authors of the study.

The research is still trying to explain why dark skin is dominant for so long. In the consumption of a piece of fish: “Open skin is suitable in an environment where you need UV radiation to produce vitamin D, but if your diet is fish base, then you don’t need too much light. You find vitamin D for your dinner, “Barbujani said.

This is an important and socially meaningful research – it can help solve the idea that such “purity” concepts of races that continue by the most provided by the most supported issues are nothing but racism.

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