7,200-Year-Old Goat Leather From Granada Yields Ancient DNA

Why the DNA matters

According to the team, this is the first time nuclear DNA from domestic goats has been obtained in the Iberian Peninsula. It is also one of the oldest genomes recovered from organic remains outside very cold or high-mountain settings. Comparable cases so far come from ice, such as the leather of the Iceman or goat-skin leggings from the Alps. Ancient DNA rarely survives in a warm region.

Genetics identifies the animal as a female domestic goat (Capra hircus). It showed no African ancestry, which suggests that mixture arrived later. Among the breeds compared, the closest match was the bermeya, though only four Spanish breeds were included and the sample is limited.

A cave that preserves the rarest finds

The cave lies about seven kilometres from the Mediterranean at 450 metres of altitude. The researchers say its microenvironment preserves organic materials by desiccation, which almost never survive. The site has also yielded the oldest basketry in southern Europe and the first evidence of early Neolithic archery, with bowstrings about 7,000 years old.

The cave served as a burial ground in five phases, beginning about 9,500 years ago in the Mesolithic and ending in the Bronze Age, roughly 3,900 to 3,700 years ago. The leather probably belonged to a grave assemblage, perhaps as a body wrapping or a garment. In the 19th century, miners searching for galena walled it into the rock, where it stayed until it was found and dated.

The earliest evidence of domestic goat use in southern Iberia dates to about 7,500 years ago, linked to the first farmers and herders.