Scientists had already known for a few years, from analysing the skeletons of other hunter-gatherer bones found in western Europe, that dark skin pigmentation could well have been common back then. After all, light skin was likely an evolutionary adaptation, one that helped people living in northern climates absorb more vitamin D when there wasn’t enough sunshine. The first human pioneers didn’t arrive in Europe or Asia looking white, because they had originally migrated from Africa, where there was little or no survival advantage in having lighter skin pigmentation.
