Ranis cave: Homo sapiens and Neanderthals coexisted before extinction
Homo sapiens, or modern humans, had already arrived in Northern Europe 45,000 years ago, coexisting with Neanderthals for several millennia before the latter eventually became extinct, according to a new study published in Nature on January 31.
Archaeologists unearthed significant findings regarding the early presence of Homo sapiens in Northern Europe via genetic analysis of bone fragments which were retrieved from the Ilsenhöhle cave site near Ranis in Germany.
This discovery highlights a prolonged overlap between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, lasting several thousand years before the latter species went extinct.
Study findings prove Homo neanderthalensis coexisted
The discovery site is known for its finely flaked, leaf-shaped stone tool blades. It is among the oldest confirmed sites of modern human Stone Age culture in north-central and northwestern Europe, according to a statement by the University of California.
Evidence insinuates that Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis coexisted side-by-side. This aligns with genomic evidence revealing occasional interbreeding between these two species.
It further reinforces the notion that the migration of modern humans into Europe and Asia around 50,000 years ago played a role in contributing to the extinction of Neanderthals, who had inhabited the region for over 500,000 years.
The genetic analysis, combined with archaeological, isotopic, and radiocarbon dating, contributes to a revised understanding of the settlement history of Northern Europe during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition.
In simple terms, the findings suggest that Homo sapiens had a presence in the region much earlier than previously thought, fundamentally altering our knowledge about the chronology of human dispersal in Europe.
“Homo sapiens made this technology, and that Homo sapiens were this far north at this time period, which is 45,000 years ago,” said Elena Zavala, stated study’s author and a Miller Research Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. “So these are among the earliest Homo sapiens in Europe.”
Evidence reassessed
Jean-Jacque Hublin, former director of the institute and a professor at the Collège de France in Paris, noted that the Ranis cave site provides evidence for the first dispersal of Homo sapiens across the higher latitudes of Europe.
“It turns out that stone artifacts that were thought to be produced by Neanderthals were, in fact, part of the early Homo sapiens toolkit,” he said. “This fundamentally changes our previous knowledge about the period: Homo sapiens reached northwestern Europe long before Neanderthal disappearance in southwestern Europe.”
The fossils and artifacts were excavated from an eight-meter-deep sequence at the cave site. Researchers analyzed findings from the cave site in the 1930s as well as when the Ranis cave site was re-excavated between 2016 and 2022.
The study also sheds light on the adaptive capacity of Homo sapiens to harsh, cold climatic conditions during their dispersal.
“We confirmed that the skeletal fragments belonged to Homo sapiens. Interestingly, several fragments shared the same mitochondrial DNA sequences — even fragments from different excavations,” Zavala, a Ph.D. student at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA) said.
“This indicates that the fragments belonged to the same individual or their maternal relatives, linking these new finds with the ones from decades ago.”
Hublin further emphasized that the site provides evidence for the first dispersal of Homo sapiens across the higher latitudes of Europe. Stone artifacts that were thought to be produced by Neanderthals were, in fact, part of the early Homo sapiens toolkit.
“This fundamentally changes our previous knowledge about the period: Homo sapiens reached northwestern Europe long before Neanderthal disappearance in southwestern Europe.”
The team re-excavated the Ranis cave site to locate remaining deposits from the 1930s, clarify stratigraphy, and identify the makers of the LRJ (leaf-shaped stone tools).
They concluded that the cave was mainly utilized by hibernating cave bears and denning hyenas, with humans making only sporadic appearances, according to the statement.
The study stated that the lower-density archaeological signature matches other Lincombian–Ranisian–Jerzmanowician sites and is best explained by expedient visits of short duration by small, mobile groups of pioneer H. sapiens.
Sarah Pederzani, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of La Laguna in Spain, who led the paleoclimate study of the site, stated that this finding depicts even earlier groups of Homo sapiens dispersing across Eurasia already had some capacity to adapt to such harsh climatic conditions.
“Until recently, it was thought that resilience to cold-climate conditions did not appear until several thousand years later, so this is a fascinating and surprising result.”
Source: Interesting Engineering
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Ranis cave: Homo sapiens and Neanderthals coexisted before extinction