An international team of researchers led by scientists from Research Center named after. Max Planck for the Study of the Ancient Mediterranean (Germany) and the University of Bologna (Italy) has for the first time reconstructed the genetic and social profile of the people who lived in northwestern Calabria about 3,500 years ago. Research results published in the journal Communications Biologyprovide unique insights into the cultural practices and kinship patterns of this community.

The Grotta della Monaca cave, located in the Pollino mountain range, is one of the most important prehistoric monuments in Calabria. Human remains dating back to the Bronze Age, 1780–1380 BC, have been found here.

e. DNA from these bones has made it possible to explore how this small settlement fits into the broader genetic context of the Mediterranean at the time.

Francesco Fontani, first author of the study, explained: “Our analysis showed that the population of Grotta della Monaca had genetic links to Early Bronze Age groups from Sicily, but did not have the influence of the eastern Mediterranean, as did their Sicilian contemporaries.”

This indicates that Tyrrhenian Calabria followed its own cultural and demographic trajectories.

In addition, the study found that despite its geographic isolation, the community was not genetically closed.Two individuals were found to be related to populations from northeastern Italyindicating migration and exchange of genes across the peninsula. Also found in the genetic compositioncomponents from European hunter-gatherers, Anatolian farmers and steppe pastoralists– components of genetic material common in Bronze Age Europe, but here forming a local flavor.

Burials were organized by gender and relationship, uniting parents and offspring. In addition, isotopic and genetic data showed that the cave inhabitants engaged in livestock farming and consumed dairy products, despite having a genetic predisposition to lactose intolerance.

Donata Luiselli, co-author of the study, stressed that this confirms how cultural adaptation can outpace genetic evolution. People who lived in difficult mountain conditions developed nutritional strategies.

The Grotta della Monaca cave most likely served as a collective burial place, reinforcing shared identity and family ties, rather than simply as an isolated ritual space. This discovery helps to rethink the role of caves in the social life of the Proto-Apennine peoples.