Recently discovered fossils challenge ideas that modern humans wiped out Neanderthals shortly after arriving from Africa.
The discovery of a child’s tooth and stone tools in a cave in southern France suggests that Homo sapiens was in Western Europe some time ago 54,000 years; that is, several thousand years earlier than previously thought, which indicates that the two species could have coexisted for a long period.
The research was published in the journal Science Advances.
The discovery took place in the Mandrin cave, in the Rhône valley, in France, by a team led by Ludovic Slimakc, from the University of Toulouse.
The professor was amazed when he found evidence of early modern human settlement.
“Rewrite” history
“Now we can show that the Homo sapiens arrived (in Europe) 12,000 years earlier than we believed and that this population was later replaced by other populations of Neanderthals”, said Ludovic Slimak.
“This literally rewrites all of our history books“.
The Neanderthals emerged in Europe ago 400,000 years. And the current theory suggests that they became extinct a few years ago 40. years, shortly after the Homo sapiens arrived on the continent from Africa.
But the new discovery suggests that our species arrived much earlier and that the two species could have coexisted in Europe for more than ,000 years.
Recreation of the face of a Neanderthal woman. (Photo: GETTY IMAGES)
According to Professor Chris Stringer, from the Natural History Museum in London, this challenges the current idea that our species rapidly surpassed the Neanderthals.
“They were not replaced from the night in the morning by modern humans”, he told BBC News.
“Sometimes Neanderthals took advantage, other times modern humans. It was something more finely balanced”.
Archaeologists found fossil evidence in various layers of the site.
The more they dug, the further back in time they could see.
In the deeper layers they found remains of Neanderthals who lived in the area for about 000, years.
It is possible that Neanderthals could have had a human-like verbal communication system. (Photo: GETTY IMAGES)
But to their complete surprise, the team found the tooth of a child, a modern human, in a layer dating back to 70,000 years, along with some stone tools made in a way that was not associated with Neanderthals.
Evidence suggests that this early group of humans lived at the site for a relatively short period, perhaps about 2,000 years, after which the site became unoccupied.
Neanderthals then returned, occupying the site for several thousand more years, until modern humans returned some 27,000 years.
“We have these twists and turns,” says Professor Stringer. “Modern humans appear briefly, then there is a gap where maybe the climate wiped them out, and then the Neanderthals come back.”
Another key finding was that the stone tools found in the same layer as the child’s tooth were associated with modern humans.
Tools made in the same way have been found at other sites in the Rhône Valley and also in Lebanon, but until now scientists have not they were sure what species of humans made them.
Some of the researchers speculate that the smaller tools could be arrowheads.
If confirmed, it would be quite a discovery: a primitive group of modern humans who used the advanced weaponry of bows and arrows.
That could have been the way the one the group initially defeated the Neanderthals ago 54, years. But if that was the case, it would have been a temporary advantage, because the Neanderthals came back.
So if our species didn’t immediately eliminate them, what What finally gave us the advantage?
Scientists have proposed many ideas: our ability to produce art, language and possibly a better brain.
But the professor Stringer thinks it was because we were more organized.
“We were better connected to the network, our social groups were larger, we were better storing knowledge and we build on it“, he said.
The idea of prolonged interaction with Neanderthals fits with the discovery of 400 that modern humans have a small amount of Neanderthal DNA.
This indicates that the two species interbred, according to profess or Stringer.
“We do not know if they were peaceful exchanges of couples. It could have been (the result of) grabbing, you know, a female from another group. It could have even been to adopt abandoned or lost Neanderthal babies who had been orphaned, “he said.
” All those things could have happened. So we don’t know the whole story yet“, he continued.
“But as we collect more data and more DNA, with more discoveries, we will get closer to the truth about what really happened at the end of the He was a Neanderthal”.
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