2024-01-31 16:00:06
Updated Wednesday, January 31, 2024 – 17:00
Homo sapiens reached northern Europe at least 45,000 years ago and coincided with Neanderthals for thousands of years before their extinction. It is one of the main conclusions of the investigation that an international team of scientists has carried out at the Ilsenhhle site, in the town of Ranis (Germany) and that provides information about the first modern humans to cross the Alps. This is a multidisciplinary study that has combined field work, DNA analysis, proteinomics, radiocarbon dating and isotopic analysis. Their conclusions are detailed this Wednesday in three articles that appear in the journals Nature and Nature Ecology and Evolution.
The German site was excavated for the first time in the 1930s. Recently, researchers have reexamined all the sediment layers and reached depths that those first investigations had not been able to access. There they have found stone tools similar to those found in several sites spread throughout the continent – such as Moravia (Czech Republic), Poland and the United Kingdom – that correspond to a type of lithic industry called Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowskian (LRJ) culture. . A technology that appears in the transition from the Middle and Upper Paleolithic.
The new work has also made it possible to recover human and animal fossils. Thanks to previous dating, it was already known that the Ranis site had a minimum age of 40,000 years, but without identifiable bones it had not been possible to clarify whether the tools had been made by Neanderthals or Homosapiens, or if both species had inhabited the place.
Now, the new findings show that “Homo sapiens created this technology and that it had already reached the north 45,000 years ago,” says Elena Zavala, one of the first authors of the article published in Nature, currently a researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, after having studied at the Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany). “These are some of the first A wise man of Europe”.
In addition to the new excavations, the team also reviewed bone fragments obtained in Ranis in previous work, present for decades in various collections of German institutions, among which human remains were identified. “We were able to confirm that several skeleton fragments belonged to H. wise and that several of the new ones share mitochondrial DNA sequences – even fragments – with individuals from previous excavations,” explains Elena Zavala. “This indicates that they belonged either to the same individual or were maternal relatives, which links these new finds with those of decades ago”.
By comparing the DNA with that of other samples found across the continent, Zavala discovered that most of the fragments were genetically related to the skull of a woman who lived 43,000 years ago in another cave in Zlat k, in the Czech Republic. And one of them, with a fossil found in Italy.
Stone toolsJosephine Schubert / Burg Ranis Museum
The combination of human, animal and environmental samples allowed dating and analysis through different methods, not just genetic. The researchers also extracted proteins from the bones, a method that allows identification in the absence of DNA. Another important objective was to obtain remains of the sediments of the site, especially the layers where the tools were found. Therefore, in addition to searching for human bone fragments, The team also extracted DNA from ancient mammals of sediment samples to complete a zooarchaeological analysis. In addition, tool marks on animal bones also serve to demonstrate the presence of humans in different periods.
Cutting-edge technology
Although they were found very fragmented, the bones were well preserved and allowed scientists to apply new genetic and proteinomic analysis techniques. These analyzes allowed us to demonstrate that Ranis Cave was used by small groups of humans for short periods of time (at other times it hosted large carnivores, such as hyenas and cave bears). Also that the sapiens who used the shelter cThey ate meat from various animalssuch as reindeer, woolly rhinoceros and horses.
One of the researchers examines an animal fossilGeoff M. Smith
Radiocarbon dating was then applied to complete the chronology of the cave’s occupation, confirming that heThe humans who used the shelter are some of the first A wise man who inhabited the continent. On the other hand, analyzes of the isotopic signature in stones and bones allow us to better understand climatic conditions and the environment through chemistry. Thus, they have shown that at the time when stone tools were manufactured, a very cold continental climate predominated in the region, with open steppe landscapes, similar to those found today in Siberia or northern Scandinavia.
In this way, by applying different methods, the articles published this Wednesday describe not only the Homo sapiens fossils from Ilsenhhle, but also part of their diet, way of life or the environmental conditions they found. For example, they moved in small groups, shared their environment with other large carnivores and made elaborate stone tools. Furthermore, the finding supports the idea that even these first groups of sapiens that dispersed throughout Eurasia already had a certain capacity to adapt to climatic conditions such as those that existed north of the Alps.
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