Our Understanding of Neanderthal prehistory in Europe is changing rapidly, thanks to multiple sets of remains discovered in Poland’s Stajnia Cave, providing genetic evidence that the central European region was more important to the species’ migration and development than previously understood.
The European team behind the discovery reported their findings in a recent paper in Current Biology, based on mitochondrial DNA analysis of eight sets of Neanderthal teeth recovered from the ancient cave.
The team reports that this is the first time the genetic profile of Neanderthals from north of the Carpathians has been recovered, filling in an important gap in our knowledge about these archaic cousins of humans, which split off from our lineage at least half a million years ago.
A Tight Focus on Central-Eastern European Neanderthals
The researchers note that uncovering such a small group of Neanderthals from Central and Eastern Europe is essential because it provides an unusually large sample from a specific place and time, which is rare.
“In most cases, Neanderthal genetic data come from single fossils or from remains scattered across different sites and periods,” said lead author Andrea Picin, professor at the University of Bologna. “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.”
“We had known for some time that Stajnia Cave preserved exceptional evidence, but these results exceeded our expectations,” said co-authors Wioletta Nowaczewska of the University of Wrocław and Adam Nadachowski of the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals of the Polish Academy of Sciences, in a statement. “Being 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.”
Spreading the Neanderthal Lineage
The discovery provides researchers with important context for understanding Neanderthal lineages more broadly. Mitochondrial DNA analyzed in the Stajnia find was not unique, sharing commonalities with other remains discovered in Western European sites in the Iberian Peninsula, south-eastern France, and the northern Caucasus. Yet those genetic components disappeared in samples from more recent periods, suggesting that this lineage once spread far before being replaced.
“A particularly fascinating aspect is that two teeth belonging to juvenile individuals and one belonging to an adult share the same mitochondrial DNA,” explained co-author Mateja Hajdinjak, researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. “This suggests that these individuals might be closely related to each other.”
Neanderthal Movements in Europe
A particularly important example is the similarity of the Stajnia Neanderthal DNA to that collected from the Thorin fossil, found in France’s Mandrin Cave. That sample was dated to be a mere 50,000 years old, compared to the 100,000-year date of the Stajnia find.
“Our study is a reminder that the oldest chronologies must be treated with great caution,” explains Sahra Talamo, professor at the University of Bologna and co-coordinator of the study. “When 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.”
According to the researchers, Stajnia cave provides important evidence that Central-Eastern Europe did not lie at the periphery of Neanderthal migratory limits, but was central to population movements. Continued research comparing these regions will illuminate the spread of technology and biology across Europe, revealing the movement and interaction of various Neanderthal groups in ancient Europe.
The paper, “First Multi-Individual Neanderthal Mitogenomes from North of the Carpathians,” appeared in Current Biology on April 20, 2026.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.