West European hunter-gatherer

In archaeogenetics, western hunter-gatherer (WHG, also known as west European hunter-gatherer, western European hunter-gatherer or Oberkassel cluster) (c. 15,000–5,000 BP) is a distinct ancestral component of modern Europeans, representing descent from a population of Mesolithichunter-gatherers present across much of Western Europe, Central Europe and parts of Southeastern Europe, from the British Isles in the west to the Carpathians in the east, following the retreat of the ice sheet of the Last Glacial Maximum. It is closely associated and sometimes considered synonymous with the late Upper PaleolithicVillabruna cluster, named after remains found in Ripari Villabruna cave in northern Italy, known from the terminal Pleistocene of Europe, which is largely ancestral to later WHG populations.