 This genetic shift shows that Near East populations had probably already begun moving into Europe during the end of the Upper Paleolithic, about 6,000 years earlier than previously thought, before the introduction of farming.A few specimens from the Villabruna Cluster also show genetic affinities for East Asians that are derived from gene flow.The HERC2 variation for blue eyes first appears around 13,000 to 14,000 years ago in Italy and the Caucasus.