New discovery could rewrite the history of Homo sapiens settlement in Northern Europe

An international team of researchers has found human bones and tools inside a cave in Germany. This is the oldest trace of Homo sapiens discovered so far north in Europe. The discovery could rewrite the history of Homo sapiens' settlement in Europe and the process by which Homo sapiens replaced Neanderthals, who were thought to have mysteriously disappeared thousands of years after Homo sapiens arrived on the continent. According to paleontologist Jean-Jacques Hublin, who led the research team, it is possible that the period when Homo sapiens and Neanderthals coexisted in Europe was a time of transition between the Middle and Late Paleolithic periods.

The cave in Germany was discovered in 1930, but archaeological activities at that time did not yield results because there was a nearly 2m long rock blocking the way. This time, scientists tried to move the rock by hand. As a result, the team found leaf-shaped stone knives similar to artifacts found at excavation sites of the same period, along with thousands of bone fragments.

The team used new technology to analyze protein samples from the fossils to distinguish between animal and human bones. Through DNA analysis, scientists confirmed that the cave contained the remains of 13 humans. This could mean that the stone tools in the cave, once thought to have been created by Naeanderthals, were in fact created by Homo sapiens up to 47,500 years ago.

Study co-author Marcel Weiss said the discovery was surprising because no fossils of Homo sapiens had been found in Europe from this period before. Previously, scientists believed that Homo sapiens arrived in Europe and rapidly replaced Neanderthals at the end of the transitional period about 40,000 years ago. But the new study suggests that Homo sapiens may have settled in Europe in small waves of invasions, much earlier than previously thought.