The earliest Homo sapiens in Europe appeared in France

Recently, archaeologists found stone tools, animal bones and human teeth in a cave in France. This evidence suggests that the first Homo sapiens in Europe lived here briefly before their mysterious disappearance. The study was published February 9 in Science Advances.

The study suggests that the unique stone tools and child teeth found in the caves were left by Homo sapiens during their brief stay here 54,000 years ago, rather than by Neanderthals who lived here for thousands of years before and after.

Researchers estimate that Homo sapiens only stayed here for a few decades. But the evidence found this time predates the earliest Homo sapiens evidence in Europe by about 10,000 years.

But there are also researchers who aren't sure that these stone tools or teeth were left behind by Homo sapiens.

"I don't think the evidence is very convincing." William Banks, a Paleolithic archaeologist at france's National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Bordeaux, said.

For the past 30 years, a team of researchers co-led by CNRS anthropologist Ludovic Slimak and Jean Jaurs of the University of Toulouse has been excavating the Grotte Mandrin Cave and found tens of thousands of stone tools, animal bones, and nine human teeth. These findings all date back about 70,000 to 40,000 years.

Slimak notes that most of the stone tools resemble artefacts found at Neanderthal sites in Eurasia. But some of the tools found in one of the cave's archaeological layers, Layer E (dating from 56,800 to 51,700 years ago), such as sharp pointed tools and small blades, are typical of early Homo sapiens techniques.

These stone tools found in Layer E are similar to those found in sites dating closer to the southern part of France, as well as in homo sapiens sites of similar years in the Middle East.

In addition, a team of researchers led by Clement Zanolli, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Bordeaux, analyzed the only human tooth in Layer E and found that it may be a molar of a child, similar in shape to the teeth of Homo sapiens living in Eurasia during the last glacial age.

But current technology has not yet been able to fully extract the TOOTH's DNA to determine whether it belongs to Homo sapiens or Neanderthals.

If Homo sapiens had left their tools and teeth in the E-layer, they would not have stayed in the Grotte Mandrin Cave for long. An analysis of fragments from the top of the cave by Slimak et al. showed that the shelter lasted about 40 years. The fragments have fallen off and been deposited along with other archaeological materials.

The top of the shelter will appear two new layers of white mineral calcite every year due to the rainy season, and the smoke from the fire will leave black marks on it, forming traces similar to "bar codes", from which scientists can accurately infer the year that Homo sapiens stayed. Ultimately, the researchers concluded that less than a year after the flame of Homo sapiens was extinguished, Neanderthals lived here.

The remains of the oldest Homo sapiens ever confirmed in Europe come from the Bajo kiro Cave in Bulgaria, about 44,000 years old. If the above findings really belong to Homo sapiens, then no matter how short their stay, it will rewrite the record of the earliest appearance of Homo sapiens in Europe, at least thousands of years earlier. (Xu Rui)

Related thesis information: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abj9496

Source: China Science Daily