Homo sapiens reached the higher latitudes of Europe by 45,000 years ago
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Authors
The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in Europe is associated with the regional disappearance of Neanderthals and the spread of Homo sapiens. Late Neanderthals persisted in western Europe several millennia after the occurrence of H. sapiens in eastern Europe1. Local hybridization between the two groups occurred2, but not on all occasions3. Archaeological evidence also indicates the presence of several technocomplexes during this transition, complicating our understanding and the association of behavioural adaptations with specific hominin groups4. One such technocomplex for which the makers are unknown is the Lincombian–Ranisian–Jerzmanowician (LRJ), which has been described in northwestern and central Europe5–8. Here we present the morphological and proteomic taxonomic identification, mitochondrial DNA analysis and direct radiocarbon dating of human remains directly associated with an LRJ assemblage at the site Ilsenhöhle in Ranis (Germany). These human remains are among the earliest directly dated Upper Palaeolithic H. sapiens remains in Eurasia. We show that early H. sapiens associated with the LRJ were present in central and northwestern Europe long before the extinction of late Neanderthals in southwestern Europe. Our results strengthen the notion of a patchwork of distinct human populations and technocomplexes present in Europe during this transitional period.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Nature |
| Volume | 626 |
| Issue number | 7998 |
| Pages (from-to) | 341-346 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| ISSN | 0028-0836 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 08.02.2024 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:
This project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement number 861389 - PUSHH. The radiocarbon dating was financially supported by the Max Planck Society and the Thuringian State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments and Archaeology. Technical assistance in sample pretreatment for radiocarbon dating was provided by M. Trost, L. Klausnitzer and S. Steinbrenner. The excavations and much of the subsequent analysis were financially supported by the Max Planck Society. F.W. has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement number 948365). We thank E. Demey for running all of the MALDI analyses at the Ecole Supérieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielle (Paris, France); the IZI Fraunhofer, S. Kalkhof and J. Schmidt for providing access to the MALDI–TOF MS instrument in Leipzig, Germany; P. L. Rüther, Z. Fagernäs and L. Paskulin for assistance on the proteomic analysis; and the Ranis excavation team, especially C. Bock, R. Roa Romero, W. E. Lüdtke, H. Rausch and C. Lechner. E.I.Z. received funding from the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, University of California Berkeley. H.F. received funding from the European Molecular Biology Organisation (grant number ALTF 590-2021). G.M.S. is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie scheme (grant agreement no. 101027850). Genetics data were partially produced by the Ancient DNA Core Unit of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, which is funded by the Max Planck Society. We acknowledge support from the National Genomics Infrastructure in Stockholm funded by Science for Life Laboratory, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and the Swedish Research Council, and NAISS for assistance with massively parallel sequencing and access to the UPPMAX computational infrastructure.
Funding Information:
This project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement number 861389 - PUSHH. The radiocarbon dating was financially supported by the Max Planck Society and the Thuringian State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments and Archaeology. Technical assistance in sample pretreatment for radiocarbon dating was provided by M. Trost, L. Klausnitzer and S. Steinbrenner. The excavations and much of the subsequent analysis were financially supported by the Max Planck Society. F.W. has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement number 948365). We thank E. Demey for running all of the MALDI analyses at the Ecole Supérieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielle (Paris, France); the IZI Fraunhofer, S. Kalkhof and J. Schmidt for providing access to the MALDI–TOF MS instrument in Leipzig, Germany; P. L. Rüther, Z. Fagernäs and L. Paskulin for assistance on the proteomic analysis; and the Ranis excavation team, especially C. Bock, R. Roa Romero, W. E. Lüdtke, H. Rausch and C. Lechner. E.I.Z. received funding from the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, University of California Berkeley. H.F. received funding from the European Molecular Biology Organisation (grant number ALTF 590-2021). G.M.S. is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie scheme (grant agreement no. 101027850). Genetics data were partially produced by the Ancient DNA Core Unit of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, which is funded by the Max Planck Society. We acknowledge support from the National Genomics Infrastructure in Stockholm funded by Science for Life Laboratory, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and the Swedish Research Council, and NAISS for assistance with massively parallel sequencing and access to the UPPMAX computational infrastructure.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.
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