Mysterious invaders redrew the map of Europe after the last ice age

As the world started to warm after the last Ice Age, 14,500 years ago, the survivors were replaced by a new group. The question is, who were these invaders?

Mystery invaders conquered hunter-gatherers who had fled south during the last ice age, redrawing the map of Europe around 14,500 years ago, a new study of ancient DNA suggests.

What researchers call the “unknown chapter in human history” began as the ice age closed in about 30,000 years ago.


Hunter-gatherer populations in Europe began retreating to the south, seeking refuge.


Some groups survived the long winter only to then be wiped out and replaced by another family line as the climate began to warm.


“The descendants of the hunter-gatherers who survived through the Last Glacial Maximum were largely replaced by a population from another source,” says lead author Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany.