Recent archaeological discovery in Germany rewrites Homo Sapiens' history

By Alimat Aliyeva

Fragments of human bones found in a cave in central Germany show that modern humans — Homo sapiens — arrived in the cold highlands of Europe 47,500 years ago. Scientists have suggested that this date was 40 thousand years before the new discovery, Azernews reports, citing the journal Nature.

On Wednesday scientists reported that they had discovered the skeletal remains of 13 Homo sapiens in the Ilsenhele cave, located under the medieval settlement in Ranis in Germany. It was found that the bones were 47,500 years old. The oldest remains of Homo sapiens discovered so far in North-Central and North-Western Europe are about 40,000 years old.

Jean-Jacques Hublain, a paleoanthropologist and head of research at the Collège de France in Paris, said that the date of these fragments was determined directly using radiocarbon dating. According to him, well-preserved Homo sapiens DNA was also obtained.

The species Homo sapiens originated in Africa more than 300,000 years ago, then spread around the world and encountered other human populations, including Neanderthals. However, the fragmented fossil record does not explain in detail how Homo sapiens spread across Europe and what role it played in the extinction of the Neanderthals, who disappeared about 40,000 years ago.

The study, presented in three articles published in the journal Nature, sheds light on a new process of ecology and evolution of nature. It turns out that at that time it was colder on the continent than it is now, and frosts prevailed in Europe, which are now in Siberia or Scandinavia – in the desert tundra. Homo sapiens, despite its origin from warmer Africa, was able to adapt relatively quickly to colder conditions.

The researchers concluded that small mobile groups of hunter-gatherer tribes used the cave from time to time, wandering through an area full of Ice Age mammals.

The study also resolved the dispute over who produced one or another set of European stone artifacts belonging to the Lincombe-Ranis-Erzmanovica culture (LRJ), including stone blades in the shape of leaves that could be used as spear tips for hunting. Previously, experts assumed that they belonged to Neanderthals. But it turned out that these ancient objects were made by Homo sapiens.

The scientists analyzed the bones based on mitochondrial DNA, reflecting maternal heredity. Research continues using nuclear DNA, which provides genetic information from both parents, including the mixing of Homo sapiens with Neanderthals in Ranis.