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October 27, 2008
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Earliest evidence of modern humans in Europe reported
Jan. 11, 2007
Courtesy University of Colorado at Boulder
and World Science staff
Updated Jan. 12
Modern humans who first arose in Africa moved into Europe as early as about 45,000 years ago, a new study indicates. An assemblage of bone and ivory artifacts from the lowest layer at
Kostenki that includes a perforated shell, a probable small human figurine (three views, top center) and several assorted awls, mattocks and bone points dating to about 45,000 years ago.
(Courtesy CU-Boulder)
The evidence consists of stone, bone and ivory tools found under a layer of ancient volcanic ash some 250 miles south of Moscow, said John Hoffecker of the University of Colorado at Boulder.
“The big surprise here is the very early presence of modern humans in one of the coldest, driest places in Europe,” Hoffecker
added. It’s “one of the last places we would have expected people from Africa to occupy first.”
The site yielded the earliest evidence of modern humans in Europe: perforated shell ornaments and a carved piece of mammoth ivory, he said.
The latter, found five years ago, seems to be the head of a small human figurine—broken and perhaps never finished by its maker more than 40,000 years ago, said Hoffecker. “If confirmed, it will be the oldest example of figurative art ever discovered.”
Hoffecker and colleagues at the Russian Academy of Sciences detail the findings in the Jan. 12 issue of the research journal
Science.
The researchers led a dig at Kostenki, a group of more than 20 sites along the Don River in Russia that have been studied for decades. Kostenki previously yielded anatomically modern human bones and artifacts between 30,000 and 40,000 years old, they said. These included the oldest firmly dated bone and ivory needles with eyelets, indicating the inhabitants were tailoring furs to survive the cold.
“The artifacts are unmistakably the work of modern humans,” Hoffecker said, adding that his team dated the overlying sediment by several methods.
Anatomically modern humans are thought to have arisen in sub-Saharan Africa around 200,000 years ago.
Kostenki also contains evidence that modern humans were rapidly broadening their diet to include small mammals and freshwater foods, an indication they were “remaking themselves technologically,” Hoffecker said. They may have used traps and snares to catch hares and arctic foxes, exploiting large areas fairly easily, he added: “they probably set out their nets and traps and went home for lunch.”
Modern humans may have first entered this part of Europe because competitors such as Neanderthals were absent here, Hoffecker suggested. “The Neanderthals, who had occupied Europe for more than 200,000 years, seem to have left the back door open for modern humans.”
Except for some early sites in the Near East, the oldest evidence of modern humans outside Africa comes from Australia roughly 50,000 years ago, said Hoffecker.
In the same issue of Science, researchers led by Frederick E. Grine of the State University of New York at Stony Brook presented what they called the first fossil evidence that modern humans left sub-Saharan Africa for Eurasia between 65,000 and 25,000 years ago. Some scientists had argued that this occurred a few tens of thousands of years earlier.
The evidence consisted of a South African skull, dated as about 36,000 years old and closely resembling those of humans then living in Europe and far eastern Asia. These populations thus “shared a very recent common ancestor,” wrote Ted Goebel of Texas A&M University in a commentary in the journal. He wrote that modern humans likely first migrated out along the South Asian coast and into Australia, and only later into harsher northern
zones such as Kostenki.
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Homepage image: A research team works at the Kostenki site on the Don River located about 250 miles south of Moscow.
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Modern humans who first arose in Africa moved into Europe as early as about 45,000 years ago, a new study indicates. The evidence consists of stone, bone and ivory tools found under a layer of ancient volcanic ash some 250 miles south of Moscow, said John Hoffecker of the University of Colorado at Boulder. “The big surprise here is the very early presence of modern humans in one of the coldest, driest places in Europe,” Hoffecker added, “one of the last places we would have expected people from Africa to occupy first.” The site yielded the earliest evidence of modern humans in Europe: perforated shell ornaments and a carved piece of mammoth ivory, he said. The latter, found five years ago, seems to be the head of a small human figurine—broken and perhaps never finished by its maker more than 40,000 years ago, said Hoffecker. “If confirmed, it will be the oldest example of figurative art ever discovered.” Hoffecker and colleagues of the Russian Academy of Sciences detail the findings in the Jan. 12 issue of the research journal Science. The researchers led a dig at Kostenki, a group of more than 20 sites along the Don River in Russia that have been studied for decades. Kostenki previously yielded ana tomically modern human bones and artifacts between 30,000 and 40,000 years old, they said. These included the oldest firmly dated bone and ivory needles with eyelets, indicating the inhabitants were tailoring furs to survive the cold. “The artifacts are unmistakably the work of modern humans,” Hoffecker said, adding that his team dated the overlying sediment by several methods. Ana tomically modern humans are thought to have arisen in sub-Saharan Africa around 200,000 years ago. Kostenki also contains evidence that modern humans were rapidly broadening their diet to include small mammals and freshwater foods, an indication they were “remaking themselves technologically,” Hoffecker said. They may have used traps and snares to catch hares and arctic foxes, exploiting large areas fairly easily, he added: “they probably set out their nets and traps and went home for lunch.” Modern humans may have first entered this part of Europe because competitors such as Neanderthals were absent here, Hoffecker suggested. “The Neanderthals, who had occupied Europe for more than 200,000 years, seem to have left the back door open for modern humans.” Except for some early sites in the Near East, the oldest evidence of modern humans outside Africa comes from Australia roughly 50,000 years ago, said Hoffecker.