Ancient DNA Shows Who Wore 20,000 Years Old Pendant

Inside a Siberian cave that has been an archeological treasure trove, an elk’s canine tooth — pierced to become a pendant — was unearthed by scientists with care to avoid contaminating this intriguing artifact made roughly 20,000 years ago.

The pristine collection of the pendant from Denisova Cave paid dividends. Scientists said a new method for extracting ancient DNA identified the object’s long-ago owner — a Stone Age woman closely related to a population of hunter-gatherers known to have lived in a part of Siberia east of the cave site in the foothills of the Altai Mountains in Russia.

The method can isolate DNA that was present in skin cells, sweat or other bodily fluids and was absorbed by certain types of porous material including bones, teeth and tusks when handled by someone thousands of years ago.

Objects used as tools or for personal adornment — pendants, necklaces, bracelets, rings and the like — can offer insight into past behavior and culture, though our understanding has been limited by an inability to tie a particular object to a particular person.

“I find these objects made in the deep past extremely fascinating since they allow us to open a small window to travel back and have a glance into these people’s lives,” said molecular biologist Elena Essel of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature.

The pendant’s maker drilled a hole in the tooth to allow for some sort of now-lost cordage. The tooth alternatively could have been part of a head band or bracelet.