The modern man (Homo sapiens) may have arrived in Europe more than ten thousand years earlier than previously believed. That is the conclusion of a study in a French cave. In it, a sapiens molar fragment and tools of sapiens have been found, which are between 56,800 and 51,700 years old.
It is striking that both before and after modern humans lived in the cave, the cave was inhabited by Neanderthals, who had already lived in Europe for hundreds of thousands of years. Until now, the close proximity of sapiens and Neanderthals has only been known from the Middle East.
The study of the new finds at Mandrin Cave on the eastern bank of the Rhone, about 60 kilometers north of Avignon, is published this week in Science Advancesby a team led by archaeologists Ludovic Slimak (Université de Toulouse) and Clément Zanolli (Université de Bordeaux).
Until now, sapiens presence in Europe has been seen from about 45,000 years ago, based on sapiens teeth and jewelry found in Italy and Bulgaria. Tools and also figurative figurines made by H. sapiens in Geissenklosterle in southern Germany are probably 43,000 years old.
“It could be”, is the cautious judgment of Wil Roebroeks, professor of archeology at Leiden University, “but it is by no means certain”. The evidence for this early presence is based on the assignment of one electoral fragment to Homo sapiens† That molar is the only direct indication that modern humans lived in the cave so early. And because DNA tests on animal teeth from the cave yielded little, this was not even attempted with the molar fragment. He is assigned to . solely by virtue of his shape Homo sapiens† All three molar reconstructions undertaken unequivocally fall within the range of Ice Age sapiens and not within the range of humans living today, nor within that of Neanderthals, the researchers write.†
The selection fragment is small, it can move up and down
Wil Roebroeks professor
“I still want to believe that assignment,” says Roebroeks, “although I do wonder how well we know the shape variation of late Neanderthal molars.” A more important reason for caution is that “nowhere is it mentioned how deep this molar was found under the later strata in the cave, from the time when modern humans lived in that cave anyway. The electoral fragment is small, it can move up and down through strata.” In short, concludes Roebroeks, „for the time being, I think the evidence is too limited for such a large claim.”
The species Homo sapiens is now the only human species on earth and originated around 300,000 years ago in Africa. The first sapiens left Africa around 200,000 years ago, but it does not appear that those excursions to Israel and possibly Greece have resulted in a lasting presence outside Africa. It is not until 70,000 years ago that a more permanent expansion begins across Eurasia and, after 20,000 years ago, also across America. Around 60,000 years ago there are already Homo sapiens in Australia† Sapiens was far from the only humanoid on Earth at the time. Neanderthals have lived in western Eurasia for hundreds of thousands of years, and in eastern Eurasia there was the Denisovian closely related to Neanderthals. The Neanderthal probably died out around 40,000 years ago, the Denisovan around 20,000 years ago.
If the current conclusions Science Advances confirmed by other finds, this has important consequences for the contacts between sapiens and Neanderthals. Because if Homo sapiens indeed arrived in Europe about 54,000 years ago, this modern human species coexisted with Neanderthals in one area for much longer than the barely a few thousand years assumed in the last decades. That could also mean that the genetic mixing between the two species, which is still visible in the few percent of Neanderthal DNA in humans outside Africa, may also have occurred in Europe. Until now, this mixing is thought to have taken place in the Middle East, where the two species may also have interacted around 60,000 years ago.
Abnormal development
A second, but according to Roebroeks not compelling, indication of modern human presence in the Mandrin cave are the tools found in the layer E concerned: of the special neronian type, which were always regarded as a deviant development in this period. They were also assigned to Neanderthals by Slimak and his team until a few years ago, but are known only from a small number of caves in the Rhone region. They are also smaller and more regular in shape than most Neanderthal tools. The Mandrin researchers also write that due to their small size, the many hundreds of points could only have been useful as arrowheads or points from small spears thrown with a spear-thrower (atlatl) – relatively late technology that never with neanderthals could be associated. The research team is now linking this technology to tools from caves in Israel that are strikingly similar and also date from roughly the same time. There they have always been associated with Homo sapiens, based on a sapien jaw and other bone material found with the tools. It is striking that about half of the neronien points from the Mandrin cave are made of stone types that come from ten to even ninety kilometers away. And because the points were probably all made in the cave itself, those stones must have been taken or traded from afar as raw material. Such a distant origin of raw materials is usually associated with sapiens rather than with Neanderthals. Whether this early presence of H. sapiens in Europe was temporary or permanent is impossible to say based on the current research in the Mandrin cave.