The Phillips DNA Project

The members of Phillips Family Group 8 have found their first DNA match in Europe!  The match is not with a living person, but with a small group of early Bronze Age skeletons nearly 3,000 years old.  The skeletons were found in Lichtenstein cave in Lower Saxony located in northwest Germany.  Although yDNA is very fragile and usually decomposes rapidly upon death, these skeletons were buried in a fairly inaccessible cave with a relatively low and stable temperature which apparently helped preserve the DNA.  Many of the bones were further preserved with gypsum sinter, a type of calcium phosphate from saturated water that dripped into the cave.