PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Eugenio Bortolini AU - Luca Pagani AU - Gregorio Oxilia AU - Cosimo Posth AU - Federica Fontana AU - Federica Badino AU - Tina Saupe AU - Francesco Montinaro AU - Davide Margaritora AU - Matteo Romandini AU - Federico Lugli AU - Andrea Papini AU - Marco Boggioni AU - Nicola Perrini AU - Antonio Oxilia AU - Riccardo Aiese Cigliano AU - Rosa Barcelona AU - Davide Visentin AU - Nicolò Fasser AU - Simona Arrighi AU - Carla Figus AU - Giulia Marciani AU - Sara Silvestrini AU - Federico Bernardini AU - Jessica C. Menghi Sartorio AU - Luca Fiorenza AU - Jacopo Moggi Cecchi AU - Claudio Tuniz AU - Toomas Kivisild AU - Fernando Gianfrancesco AU - Marco Peresani AU - Christiana L. Scheib AU - Sahra Talamo AU - Maurizio D’Esposito AU - Stefano Benazzi TI - Early Alpine occupation backdates westward human migration in Late Glacial Europe AID - 10.1101/2020.08.10.241430 DP - 2020 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 2020.08.10.241430 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/08/10/2020.08.10.241430.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/08/10/2020.08.10.241430.full AB - The end of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) in Europe (~16.5 ka ago) set in motion major changes in human culture and population structure1. In Southern Europe, Early Epigravettian material culture was replaced by Late Epigravettian art and technology about 18-17 ka ago at the beginning of southern Alpine deglaciation, although available genetic evidence from individuals who lived ~14 ka ago2–5 opened up questions on the impact of migrations on this cultural transition only after that date. Here we generate new genomic data from a human mandible uncovered at the Late Epigravettian site of Riparo Tagliente (Veneto, Italy), that we directly dated to 16,980-16,510 cal BP (2σ). This individual, affected by a low-prevalence dental pathology named focal osseous dysplasia, attests that the very emergence of Late Epigravettian material culture in Italy was already associated with migration and genetic replacement of the Gravettian-related ancestry. In doing so, we push back by at least 3,000 years the date of the diffusion in Southern Europe of a genetic component linked to Balkan/Anatolian refugia, previously believed to have spread during the later Bølling/Allerød warming event (~14 ka ago4,6). Our results suggest that demic diffusion from a genetically diverse population may have substantially contributed to cultural changes in LGM and post-LGM Southern Europe, independently from abrupt shifts to warmer and more favourable conditions.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.