A team of researchers has extracted complete mitochondrial genomes from eight Neanderthal teeth found in a single cave in southern Poland, reconstructing what they describe as the oldest group of these ancient humans ever identified in Central-Eastern Europe. The study, published online April 20, 2026, in Current Biology, resolved at least seven and possibly eight distinct individuals from Stajnia Cave in the Krakow-Czestochowa Upland, three of whom shared identical mitochondrial DNA. That genetic overlap points to close maternal relatedness within a small population that occupied the region during Marine Isotope Stage 5, well over 100,000 years ago.
Why the Stajnia group changes the map of Neanderthal genetics
Before this study, eastern Europe had produced isolated Neanderthal specimens but no multi-individual genetic dataset from a single site and time horizon. The Stajnia results fill that gap. By recovering eight complete mitogenomes from one cave layer, the research team could compare maternal lineages within a group rather than across scattered finds separated by thousands of years and hundreds of kilometers. That distinction matters because it allows geneticists to test whether Neanderthal populations north of the Carpathians were locally rooted or part of a broader continental network.
The three individuals with identical mtDNA suggest a tight-knit community with limited maternal diversity, a pattern consistent with small, mobile bands rather than large settled populations. In small foraging groups, a few maternal lines can dominate simply because of demographic chance and repeated intermarriage among related families. The Stajnia pattern fits this expectation and hints that Neanderthals in the region lived in clusters that were biologically and socially cohesive, even if they were connected to distant groups through occasional migrations.
If future low-coverage nuclear DNA can be recovered from the same teeth, it could reveal whether these Neanderthals clustered genetically with western European populations or formed a distinct eastern lineage. The working hypothesis among several researchers is that related mitochondrial lineages once spanned much of Europe before later fragmentation and isolation. That broader picture is already suggested by the divergent Neanderthal known as Thorin from Mandrin Cave in France, whose genome showed signs of long genetic isolation from other late Neanderthals. Thorin’s distinctiveness raises the question of when and how such isolation began. The Stajnia group, older by tens of thousands of years, may represent the connected baseline from which later fragmented populations descended.
Geographically, Stajnia Cave sits near potential corridors linking the Carpathians, the North European Plain, and western Europe. If the Stajnia mitochondrial lineages prove closely related to those from far-flung sites once nuclear data become available, it would support a model in which Neanderthals regularly moved or exchanged mates over large distances. Conversely, if the Stajnia genomes cluster tightly among themselves but diverge from western sequences, that would point to early regional structuring and perhaps environmental or ecological barriers that limited contact long before Neanderthals disappeared.
Teeth, dates, and the Micoquian tool-makers of Stajnia Cave
Stajnia Cave has been yielding Neanderthal material for over a decade. An earlier study established that molar S4300 is among the oldest human remains in Poland, based on morphological assessment and stratigraphic context. That tooth, together with other fragmentary remains, first drew attention to the site as a key window into early Neanderthal presence north of the Carpathians.
A separate 2020 genomics paper recovered a Neanderthal mitochondrial genome from tooth S5000, dated to approximately 116,000 years ago through molecular branch shortening, and placed it within a Micoquian archaeological context. The Micoquian is a stone tool tradition associated with Neanderthals across central and eastern Europe, characterized by bifacial handaxes, asymmetrical leaf points, and specific flaking techniques that can be tracked across sites. At Stajnia, these tools appear in the same layers as the Neanderthal teeth, tying the individuals to a broader cultural pattern rather than leaving them as isolated biological finds.
The 2026 study builds directly on that foundation. According to the paper published in Current Biology, the team combined morphological assessment, radiocarbon dating where possible, and complete mitochondrial genome sequencing across the full set of teeth. The researchers used careful stratigraphic control to assign the specimens to the same sedimentary layer associated with Micoquian tools, strengthening the case that they represent a single occupation phase or a limited series of visits during Marine Isotope Stage 5.
One source of minor confusion in the published record is whether eight or nine teeth were analyzed. The PubMed abstract describes nine teeth yielding eight complete mitogenomes, while other descriptions of the work refer to eight teeth resolving a minimum of seven, possibly eight, individuals. The discrepancy likely reflects different counting conventions for teeth versus successfully sequenced specimens, or the exclusion of one problematic sample from certain analyses. Neither the authors nor the journal has publicly clarified the difference, but the key point for interpretation is that multiple distinct Neanderthals, not a single individual, are represented in the Stajnia assemblage.
The University of Wroclaw, whose researchers contributed to the study, described the find as the oldest Neanderthal group reconstructed in this part of Europe. The university’s summary highlighted the identical mtDNA shared by three individuals and framed the results as evidence of Neanderthal mobility and migration corridors that connected populations across the continent. Those corridors would have run through landscapes that fluctuated dramatically with glacial cycles, periodically opening and closing routes between central Europe, the steppe, and western refugia.
Gaps in the record and what to watch next
Several open questions limit how far these findings can be pushed. The mitochondrial genome is inherited only through the maternal line, so it captures just one thread of ancestry. Nuclear DNA, which records contributions from both parents and provides far richer population-level information, has not yet been reported from the new Stajnia teeth. Without it, claims about population replacement or gene flow corridors across the North European Plain remain plausible hypotheses rather than demonstrated conclusions.
Another constraint is chronological precision. Molecular dating based on mitochondrial branch lengths can place the Stajnia individuals broadly within Marine Isotope Stage 5, but pinning down whether the teeth cluster in a narrow time slice or span several tens of thousands of years is difficult. If the remains accumulated over a long interval, the “group” would represent a palimpsest of visits rather than a single contemporaneous community, complicating social and demographic inferences.
The raw sequencing data, including FASTQ or BAM files, do not appear to be publicly deposited beyond the summary phylogenies presented in the paper. Independent replication or reanalysis by other labs will depend on whether those files become available through repositories such as the European Nucleotide Archive or similar databases. Broader access would allow researchers to test alternative models of population structure, evaluate contamination estimates, and integrate the Stajnia sequences into larger comparative datasets.
Future work at Stajnia and neighboring sites is likely to focus on three fronts. First, attempts to recover nuclear DNA from the teeth or associated skeletal fragments could transform the picture of relatedness both within the cave and across Europe. Even low-coverage genomes might reveal degrees of kinship among the individuals, clarify links to Neanderthals from the Caucasus or western Europe, and test for signals of early contact with anatomically modern humans.
Second, more refined dating-through improved radiometric techniques, Bayesian modeling of stratigraphy, or additional molecular clocks-could tighten the timeline for occupation. Establishing whether the Stajnia Neanderthals lived during a relatively warm interglacial phase or a cooler oscillation would help explain their mobility patterns and potential routes of dispersal.
Third, integrating the genetic results with detailed study of the Micoquian toolkit and faunal remains could illuminate how cultural practices, diet, and mobility strategies varied within what appears genetically to be a small, closely related group. If similar tool types and hunting strategies appear at distant sites sharing related mitochondrial lineages, it would bolster the idea of continent-spanning cultural and genetic networks among Neanderthals long before their final millennia.
For now, the Stajnia teeth stand as a rare snapshot of multiple Neanderthals living in the same region during a relatively early phase of their European history. Their shared maternal lineages, archaeological context, and strategic geographic position collectively shift the focus of Neanderthal research eastward, suggesting that some of the most informative clues to their population structure and movements may lie not only in classic western European caves, but in the less explored karst systems of Poland and beyond.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
