Published on
24/06/2026 - 20:50 GMT+2
A research project coordinated from Cáceres has succeeded in recovering human DNA more than 2,000 years old in caves in Spain and Portugal, a breakthrough that opens up new possibilities for reconstructing the history of prehistoric populations.
Led by Hipólito Collado and carried out with the participation of teams from Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Germany and China, the study shows that rock surfaces are capable of preserving traces of human genetic material over thousands of years.
The paper, published in the journal 'Nature Communications', forms part of the First Art project, which grew out of research into the rock art in the Maltravieso cave in Cáceres, where some of the oldest paintings in Europe have been identified.
