2024-01-31 16:04:39
Our species A wise man settled central and northwestern Europe much earlier than previously known. Finds from the Ilsen Cave in the town of Ranis in Thuringia prove that anatomically modern humans had penetrated this far north at least 45,000 years ago – back then it was around 7 to 15 degrees colder than today. This shows how well humans were able to adapt to harsh environmental conditions, writes an international research team led by Jean-Jacques Hublin from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. In addition, the three show in Naturein Nature Ecology & Evolution as well as again in the same journal Published studies show that humans and Neanderthals coexisted in Europe for thousands of years – possibly even more than 10,000 years.
The finds from Ranis near Saalfeld shake several ideas. Until now, it was often assumed that anatomically modern humans only settled in Central Europe around 40,000 years ago and only appeared there earlier in isolated cases. Although certain stone blades, some of which were worked on both sides, from the so-called Lincombien-Ranisien-Jerzmanowicien (LRJ) culture stage are older and also appeared in northwestern Europe, they have previously been assigned to Neanderthals, who lived on the continent more than a hundred thousand years ago and around disappeared 40,000 years ago.
Ice Age high-tech in Thuringia: Stone blades from the Lincombien-Ranisien-Jerzmanowicien: Image: dpa
But in the Ilsen Cave, Hublin’s team found bone remains next to the LRJ blades, the DNA of which clearly comes from Homo sapiens. Accordingly, LRJ stone blades, which were discovered in Great Britain, among others, also go back to Homo sapiens.
“The Ranis site provided evidence of the first expansion of Homo sapiens into the northern latitudes of Europe,” said Hublin, director emeritus of the Leipzig Max Planck Institute. “It is now certain that stone implements thought to have been made by Neanderthals were definitely made by modern humans.”
Who created these stone blades?
The Ilsenhöhle, located directly below Ranis Castle, was extensively researched in the 1920s and 1930s. But during excavations after 2016, the team dug deeper – and discovered thousands of shattered bone fragments under the collapsed cave roof. Some of them clearly come from modern humans, others from animals.
“The archaeozoological studies show that the cave at Ranis was alternately used by hyenas, hibernating cave bears and small groups of humans,” said co-author Geoff Smith from the University of Kent in England. “Although these people only used the cave for short periods of time, they consumed meat from a range of animals, including reindeer, woolly rhinoceros and horses.”
Rough, barren landscapes
Isotope analyzes of horse teeth showed that a very cold continental climate prevailed in the region, particularly around 44,000 years ago. At that time the area resembled an open steppe like today’s Siberia. “Our results show that even these early Homo sapiens groups, as they spread across Eurasia, were already able to adapt to such harsh climatic conditions,” said co-author Sarah Pederzani from the University of La Laguna in Tenerife . “It was previously assumed that humans’ resistance to cold climatic conditions only emerged several thousand years later.” It is possible that people even specifically moved to the cold region in search of larger herds of animals.
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Studies from the Mandrin cave in the Rhone Valley in southern France recently caused a stir. A research team there had found evidence of people who were 54,000 years old. Although this was met with reluctance among experts, Jean-Jacques Hublin’s team writes: “If confirmed, this would result in a complex mosaic picture for Europe, with groups of Neanderthals and humans as early as 55,000 to 45,000 years ago.”
It is unclear whether the early inhabitants of the Ilsenhöhle lived permanently in Central Europe or only ventured north seasonally, for example in the form of small mobile hunting parties. Be that as it may, they did not leave any traces in the genetic makeup of today’s Europeans. The genetic lineage of these early anatomically modern humans eventually died out.
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