Thanks to M. Danino for the link.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6253121.stm
Last Updated: Friday, 12 January 2007, 08:57 GMT
Clues found for early Europeans
The researchers looked bone and ivory artefacts found at Kostenki
An archaeological find in Russia has shed light on the migration of modern
humans into Europe.
Artefacts uncovered at the Kostenki site, south of Moscow, suggest modern
humans were at this spot about 45,000 years ago.
The first moderns may have entered Europe through a different route
than was
previously thought, the international team reports.
The research is published in the journal Science.
"Until now, it appeared as though the earliest presence of modern
humans in
Europe was in south central Europe, in places like Bulgaria and Greece,"
explained John Hoffecker, author on the paper and a research scientist at
the University of Colorado at Boulder, US.
"This reflects an entry from the Levant (eastern shores of the
Mediterranean) just before 44,000 years ago."
Missing Neanderthals
But the team believes it has now found an alternative and possibly earlier
entry route into the continent.
The researchers examined tools, personal ornaments and carved ivory
discovered under a layer of ancient volcanic ash at the site, which lies
along the Don River.
The artefacts most likely belonged to modern humans and dated to about as
early as 45,000 years ago, said Professor Hoffecker. However they were
dissimilar to artefacts found at the other European sites, he added.
"This suggests we have a not very closely related group of people at
Kostenki, suggesting at the very least that we have an alternate route for
modern humans into Europe - perhaps this being the earliest one," he told
the BBC News website.
Professor Hoffecker said he was surprised to have found such early
evidence
of modern humans at Kostenki.
"It is arguably the coolest and driest part of mid-latitude Europe. It is
the last place we would expect to see them first," he added.
A possible reason to migrate to these harsher conditions may have been the
lack of Neanderthals present in this area at this time.
"The absence of Neanderthals meant there were no competitors to deal with
for resources," Professor Hoffecker said.
Possible routes
Fossil records suggest modern humans emerged in sub-Saharan Africa about
200,000 years ago, but their dispersal is thought to have begun between
60,000 and 50,000 years ago.
The earliest evidence of modern humans appears in Australia, dating to
about
50,000 years ago.
Professor Hoffecker said it was difficult to say exactly where the modern
humans found in Kostenki would have come from.
One possible route, some researchers believe, is from western Asia via the
Caucasus Mountains, which lie between the Caspian and Black Seas.
He added that modern humans might have migrated into central Asia, but
then
turned back on themselves to make the move into Europe.
Another paper, published in the same journal, reveals that a skull
found in
South Africa appears to represent an ancestor of the modern humans that
eventually migrated to Europe and Asia.
Professor Chris Stringer of the department of palaeontology at the Natural
History Museum, London, said: "These papers are interesting from an
anthropological and archaeological point of view, and confirm some of the
things we have thought on this subject.
"I think we will see increasing evidence of these ancestral modern people
and their behaviour in western Asia, and at an even earlier date, in
Africa."