The Bronze Age of Eurasia (around 3000-1000 BC) was a period of major cultural changes. However, there is debate about whether these changes resulted from the circulation of ideas or from human migrations, potentially also facilitating the spread of languages and certain phenotypic traits. We investigated this by using new, improved methods to sequence low-coverage genomes from 101 ancient humans from across Eurasia. We show that the Bronze Age was a highly dynamic period involving large-scale population migrations and replacements, responsible for shaping major parts of present-day demographic structure in both Europe and Asia. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesized spread of Indo-European languages during the Early Bronze Age. We also demonstrate that light skin pigmentation in Europeans was already present at high frequency in the Bronze Age, but not lactose tolerance, indicating a more recent onset of positive selection on lactose tolerance than previously thought.

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Palaeolithic rock art is one of the most distinctive cultural traits of Upper Palaeolithic societies in Europe. Traditionally restricted to Southwestern Europe, especially to the Franco-Cantabrian province, in recent years, the geographic distribution of this phenomenon has noticeably expanded. Several years before these discoveries, the first decorated site found beyond southern Europe was Kapova cave, in Russia. This site, at the edge of the distribution area of European Palaeolithic art and far away from other cave sanctuaries, is key to define and understand potential long-distance cultural networks during the Upper Palaeolithic. In this paper, we present the first comprehensive inventory of the artworks, a renewed documentation of the graphic units (including the first digital tracings), the spatial distribution and the stylistic analysis of the different motifs. This led us to understand the role of Kapova within the Palaeolithic symbolism and to better integrate it in the Palaeolithic cultural dynamics.

The article presents an analysis of the causes for the unsatisfactory conservation state of the Upper Paleolithic wall image of a two-humped camel in the Kapova cave (South Ural, Republic of Bashkortostan). The work in revealing the monument's original colorful painting without a preliminary scientific examination of the layered calcite crusts, the absence among the organizers and participants of restoration specialists, archaeologists and karstologists with extensive work experience in the Kapova Cave - an archaeological monument of national significance, led to the corrosion of these unique images' colorful layers. The karstological and archaeological studies of the "Horses and Signs" panel in the Chaos Hall were undertaken in 2009 by the article's authors and are still ongoing. The discovery of the two-humped camel image and its significance for studying the culture of the Upper Paleolithic has pushed to the background the significant issue of preserving this image. The article presents the first review of the causes for the unsuccessful exposure of the monument's drawing. The modern state of the Chaos Hall in the Kapova Cave provides unfavorable conditions for the preservation of these drawings, exposed from beneath calcite crusts, which have acted as a natural preservative. The main factor of destruction is tied to the abundant focal infiltration of karst waters, which have variable physical and chemical parameters due to the high permeability of the rock mass. At the same time, there are no tested methods of protecting paint layers of exposed images in caves, which puts the Kapova Cave drawings at risk of rapid degradation. At the present stage of cave exploration, new clearing of drawings is unacceptable and may lead to their destruction.