{"id":1248,"date":"2024-02-01T09:40:32","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T09:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/?p=1248"},"modified":"2025-05-19T12:11:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T11:11:53","slug":"homo-sapiens-reached-northwest-europe-more-than-45000-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/2024\/02\/01\/homo-sapiens-reached-northwest-europe-more-than-45000-years-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"Homo sapiens reached northwest Europe more than 45,000 years ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

An international research project has discovered the arrival of\u00a0Homo sapiens<\/em>\u00a0in cold northern latitudes took place several thousand years before Neanderthals disappeared in southwest Europe.<\/p>\n

The research team led by colleagues at Kent\u2019s\u00a0School of Anthropology and Conservation<\/a>\u00a0and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany reports the discovery of\u00a0Homo sapiens<\/em>\u00a0fossils from the cave site Ilsenh\u00f6hle in Ranis, Germany. Directly dated to approximately 45,000 years ago, these fossils are associated with elongated stone points partly shaped on both sides (known as partial bifacial blade points), which are characteristic of the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (LRJ). This archaeological technocomplex is temporally situated between the Neanderthal-associated Middle Palaeolithic and the Upper Palaeolithic made by\u00a0H. sapiens<\/em>. Further, at Ranis, the LRJ also contains bifacial leaf points, which are fully worked across both sides, and have been interpreted, by some researchers as evidence for a link with local Neanderthals. It was the first time the full eight-metre sequence of cave site Ilsenh\u00f6hle had been re-excavated since the 1930s.<\/p>\n

The new discoveries published in a series of three new research papers document the earliest known\u00a0H. sapiens<\/em>\u00a0fossils in Central and northwest Europe and reveal for the first time the makers of the LRJ. The partial bifacial blade points found at Ranis \u2013 one of the main type-sites of the LRJ \u2013 have also been discovered at other localities across Europe, from Moravia and eastern Poland across to the British Isles and can now be linked to an early arrival of small groups of\u00a0Homo sapiens<\/em>\u00a0in northwest Europe several thousand years before Neanderthals disappeared in southwest Europe. The three studies describe the\u00a0Homo sapiens<\/em>\u00a0fossils from Ilsenh\u00f6hle at Ranis and their associated context (Mylopotamitaki et al.), the diet and lifeways of these first pioneers (Smith et al.), and the environmental conditions they faced in Central and northwest Europe (Pederzani et al.).<\/p>\n

Thousands of highly fragmented pieces of bone were recovered at the cave site Ilsenh\u00f6hle revealing patterns of the site use and human diet. Moving in small groups, they shared their environment and sites with large carnivores, like hyenas, and they manufactured elaborately crafted leaf-shaped stone tools.\u00a0Dr Geoff Smith<\/a>, lead author of one of the three studies and a zooarchaeologist based at Kent and Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology said: \u2018Zooarchaeological analysis shows that the Ranis cave was used intermittently by denning hyaenas, hibernating cave bears, and small groups of humans.<\/em>\u00a0While these humans only used the cave for short periods of time, they consumed meat from a range of animals, including reindeer, woolly rhinoceros, and horses. Although the bones were broken into smaller pieces, they were exceptionally well preserved and allowed us to apply the latest cutting-edge methods from archaeological science, proteomics and genetics.\u2019<\/p>\n

This comprehensive study, integrating archaeological excavation, morphological and proteomic taxonomic identification, mitochondrial DNA analysis, radiocarbon dating of newly excavated archaeological material and of human remains, zooarchaeology, and isotope analysis marks a significant milestone in understanding the initial incursions of\u00a0Homo sapiens<\/em>\u00a0into Europe north of the Alps during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition. Furthermore, the team found that\u00a0Homo sapiens<\/em>\u00a0ventured into Europe under severe cold climatic conditions.<\/p>\n

More of the research findings and methodology used can be read in the research paper series:<\/p>\n

Mylopotamitaki, D., Weiss, M., Fewlass, H.\u00a0et al.<\/i>\u00a0Homo sapiens<\/i>\u00a0reached the higher latitudes of Europe by 45,000 years ago.\u00a0Nature<\/i>\u00a0(2024). https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41586-023-06923-7<\/p>\n

Smith, G.M., Ruebens, K., Zavala, E.I.\u00a0et al.<\/i>\u00a0The ecology, subsistence and diet of ~45,000-year-old\u00a0Homo sapiens<\/i>\u00a0at Ilsenh\u00f6hle in Ranis, Germany.\u00a0Nat Ecol Evol<\/i>\u00a0(2024). https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41559-023-02303-6<\/p>\n

Pederzani, S., Britton, K., Trost, M.\u00a0et al.<\/i>\u00a0Stable isotopes show\u00a0Homo sapiens<\/i>\u00a0dispersed into cold steppes ~45,000 years ago at Ilsenh\u00f6hle in Ranis, Germany.\u00a0Nat Ecol Evol<\/i>\u00a0(2024). https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41559-023-02318-z<\/p>\n

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Analysis of over 1000 animal bones from Ranis showed that early Homo sapiens processed the carcasses of deer but also of carnivores, including wolf. \u00a9 Geoff M. Smith, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Stone tools from the LRJ at Ranis. 1) partial bifacial blade point characteristic of the LRJ; 2) at Ranis the LRJ also contains finely made bifacial leaf points. \u00a9 Josephine Schubert, Museum Burg Ranis, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An international research project has discovered the arrival of\u00a0Homo sapiens\u00a0in cold northern latitudes took place several thousand years before Neanderthals disappeared in southwest Europe. The … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74795,"featured_media":1249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[256067,9112],"tags":[79492],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1248"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74795"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1248"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1273,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1248\/revisions\/1273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}