Ancient genomes show social and reproductive behavior of early Upper Paleolithic foragers

TLDR

Present‑day hunter‑gatherers live in multilevel social groups that sustain a population structure with limited within‑band relatedness and inbreeding, but the timing of the evolution of these wider networks remains unknown. Here, we investigate whether the contemporary hunter‑gatherer strategy was already present in the Upper Paleolithic, using complete genome sequences from Sunghir, a ~34‑thousand‑year‑old site containing multiple anatomically modern human individuals. Individuals at Sunghir come from a small‑effective‑size population with limited kinship and inbreeding comparable to modern hunter‑gatherers, indicating that Upper Paleolithic social organization mirrored that of contemporary hunter‑gatherers with limited relatedness within residential groups and a larger mating network.

Abstract

Present-day hunter-gatherers (HGs) live in multilevel social groups essential to sustain a population structure characterized by limited levels of within-band relatedness and inbreeding. When these wider social networks evolved among HGs is unknown. Here, we investigate whether the contemporary HG strategy was already present in the Upper Paleolithic (UP), using complete genome sequences from Sunghir, a site dated to ~34 thousand years BP (kya) containing multiple anatomically modern human (AMH) individuals. We demonstrate that individuals at Sunghir derive from a population of small effective size, with limited kinship and levels of inbreeding similar to HG populations. Our findings suggest that UP social organization was similar to that of living HGs, with limited relatedness within residential groups embedded in a larger mating network.