Ancient DNA

In 1980, 3000-year-old skeletons of forty individuals were found in the Lichtenstein Cave near Osterode in the Harz Mountains. In the dissertation “Molekulargenetische Verwandtschaftsanalysen am prähistorischen Skelettkollektiv der Lichtensteinhöhle” (‘Molecular genetic kinship analyses on the prehistoric skeletal collective of the Lichtenstein Cave’) by Felix Schilz in 2006, the Y-DNA was analysed using Y-STR. Twenty-one of them were males and thirteen of them belonged to the Y-haplogroup I-L38. This led to the carriers of I-L38 being nicknamed ‘Lichtensteiner’. Until 2015, these were the only known aDNA samples (old DNA) of I-L38. Since then, due to a large number of studies, several dozen samples have been added, the ‘uncles and nephews’ of the Lichtensteins, so to speak. By the way – ‘uncle’ Cheddar man, Britain’s oldest almost complete 10,000-year-old skeleton, is also the ‘uncle’ of the Lichtensteins, as well as all other I-L38 cousins.