The finding matters because HPV16 is one of the best-known “oncogenic” (cancer-linked) HPV types today, and its deep evolutionary history is still debated. If HPV16 really shows up in ancient modern human genomes separated by tens of thousands of years, it raises awkward questions for the popular theory that the virus entered modern humans primarily via Neanderthal interbreeding explains Live Science.
What the new research claims (and why it’s controversial)
The story being discussed in the media is based on a preprint - research shared publicly before peer review - posted on bioRxiv. That team re-checked publicly available DNA sequencing data from Ötzi (who lived about 5,300 years ago) and from Ust’-Ishim, a 45,000-year-old modern human from western Siberia, and reported DNA fragments that match HPV16 records All That’s Interesting.
3D renderings of the human papillomavirus (HPV) capsid (pink) against a background image that is a transmission electron micrograph of HPV virus particles (green) (NIAID/CC BY 2.0)
Because ancient DNA is fragmented and contamination is always a concern, the authors reportedly tested whether the HPV-like matches could simply be random “noise” created by short sequences. In an interview summary, the team says their checks make them confident the HPV signal is real:
“We have the oldest evidence of HPV,” first author Juliana Yazigi told Science.
Even so, not everyone buys the strongest interpretation. Koenraad Van Doorslaer (University of Arizona), who was not involved, told Live Science that the argument against a Neanderthal link may be “overstated,” since Ust’-Ishim already carries Neanderthal DNA - so the co-occurrence of Neanderthal ancestry and HPV fragments doesn’t automatically rule out transmission through interbreeding.
- Ötzi the Iceman Genes Trace to Early Anatolian Farmers…
- Ötzi the Iceman Took a Posthumous Ride on River of Ice…
Naturalistic reconstruction of Ötzi - South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology (Public Domain)
Why Ötzi keeps rewriting the science around him
Ötzi was found in 1991 high in the Alps on the Austria–Italy border, and his preservation has made him one of the most intensively studied human remains ever recovered. That matters for pathogens too: you can’t “see” ancient viruses in the way you might spot a broken bone, so the ability to revisit high-quality genetic datasets is crucial. Live Science
The new HPV claim also lands in the middle of an older debate familiar to Ancient Origins readers: whether Neanderthals passed HPV lineages to Homo sapiens during Eurasian contact. A 2021 Ancient Origins piece summarized earlier modeling work that argued a cancer-linked HPV16 lineage may have jumped into modern humans through Neanderthal interbreeding—an idea now being challenged by these ancient-genome signals. Ancient Origins
More broadly, the HPV story fits a growing pattern: genetics keeps revealing that ancient humans—and Neanderthals—weren’t living in a “disease-free” prehistory. Ancient Origins has previously covered reports of viral DNA signals in Neanderthal sequencing data, including papillomavirus, showing how deep the roots of some infections may go. Ancient Origins
What comes next: a bigger ancient-virus timeline
At the moment, the biggest caveat is still the simplest: this is based on limited ancient datasets and a preprint that has not yet passed peer review. But if the result holds up, it could push researchers toward a more nuanced model—one where HPV16 (or at least HPV16-like lineages) were already entrenched in modern human populations long before the late Ice Age, and where the direction of transmission between human groups is not straightforward. Science
It also highlights why “ancient pathogen hunting” is becoming such a powerful lens on prehistory. Once researchers can reliably detect and compare viral fragments across multiple ancient genomes, they can start asking new questions: which infections spread with migrations, which co-evolved with humans, and which may have moved between human groups during contact events.
Top image: Ötzi is one of the best-preserved prehistoric mummies ever found. Source: South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology
By Gary Manners
References
Briones, M. 2025. Ötzi the Iceman mummy carried a high-risk strain of HPV, research finds. Available at: https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/otzi-the-iceman-mummy-carried-a-high-risk-strain-of-hpv-research-finds
Richter, H. 2025. Two ancient humans, including famed ‘Iceman,’ had cancer-causing virus. Available at: https://www.science.org/content/article/two-ancient-humans-including-famed-iceman-had-cancer-causing-virus
Stromberg, J. 2026. The Prehistoric ‘Ötzi The Iceman’ Mummy May Have Just Upended Experts’ Theories About The Origins Of HPV. Available at: https://allthatsinteresting.com/otzi-the-iceman-human-papillomavirus
Yazigi, J., et al. 2026. Oncogenic HPV types identified in Paleolithic and Chalcolithic human genome sequencing data from Ust’-Ishim and Ötzi. BioRxiv. Available at: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.14.694221v1.full.pdf?__cf_chl_tk=fLR2TEeRiYWfZTgtf32qWB7JlRAeCEDV.H1wvBiXNS0-1768403941-1.0.1.1-F.tYEE6tSQQPdAGDwqRBKkxDl1FHaWTUP4qqwbB1olc
