Oldest traces of modern humans in Europe found in Austria

This estimation of the existence of modern humans in Europe is several thousands of years earlier than previously thought.

 

Philip Nigst from the Division of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge told the Austria Press Agency on Monday that this showed the first modern humans settled in the region at the beginning of a warm phase of the Ice Age.

EPA/CSIC / HO MANDATORY CREDIT.

 

Discoveries at a dig site in Austria have showed that the oldest traces of modern humans in Europe have been found in Austria, which can be dated back to 43,500 years ago, archaeologists involved in the project claimed upon the publishing of their research on Monday.

The archaeologists had been digging at the Willendorf II site Willendorf in the Wachau region of Lower Austria from 2006 to 2011, where they found small stone artifacts believed to have been used as parts of weapons for hunting, typical of the Upper Paleolithic Age, that they were then able to date as being 43,500 years old.

Additionally the team was able to reconstruct the climate and vegetation of the region at the time through soil analysis, including both soil type and morphology, as well as through the composition of the shells of different species and sub-species of snails buried in that particular layer of soil.

They said this method of climate reconstruction is much more accurate than carbon-14 datings commonly associated with climate data from the Paleolithic Age.

Philip Nigst from the Division of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge told the Austria Press Agency on Monday that this showed the first modern humans settled in the region at the beginning of a warm phase of the Ice Age, where the region was a tundra steppe with light coniferous forests.

This estimation of the existence of modern humans in Europe is several thousands of years earlier than previously thought. Bence Viola from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Vienna told the Austria Press Agency this also showed the period of time that modern humans shared with Neanderthals is greater, now estimated to have been at least 3,500 years. "We know that they mixed, because all humans outside of Africa today carry 1.5 to 3 percent Neanderthal DNA," she said.

 

fonte: @edisonmariotti #edisonmariotti  http://www.neurope.eu/article/oldest-traces-modern-humans-europe-found-austria