1-2-2024 (BERLIN) Bone fragments discovered in the Ilsenhöhle cave in central Germany reveal that Homo sapiens ventured into Europe’s cold higher latitudes over 45,000 years ago, much earlier than previously known. This finding rewrites the early history of our species on a continent that was still inhabited by our cousins, the Neanderthals, at that time.
Scientists announced on Wednesday that they have identified 13 skeletal remains of Homo sapiens in the Ilsenhöhle cave using ancient DNA. The cave is located beneath a medieval hilltop castle in the town of Ranis in Germany. Radiocarbon dating determined that the bones are up to 47,500 years old. Previously, the oldest Homo sapiens remains from northern central and northwestern Europe were estimated to be about 40,000 years old.
“These fragments are directly dated by radiocarbon and yielded well-preserved DNA of Homo sapiens,” said Jean-Jacques Hublin, a palaeoanthropologist and research leader at Collège de France in Paris. Homo sapiens originated in Africa over 300,000 years ago and later migrated to various parts of the world, encountering other human populations such as the Neanderthals. However, due to the limited fossil record, the details of how Homo sapiens spread through Europe and their role in the extinction of Neanderthals, who disappeared approximately 40,000 years ago, have remained unclear.
The research, presented in three studies published in the journals Nature and Nature Ecology & Evolution, revealed that the region was colder during that time than it is today. It resembled a chilly steppe-tundra setting similar to present-day Siberia or Scandinavia. This illustrates how Homo sapiens, despite their origins in warmer Africa, adapted relatively quickly to frigid conditions.
The researchers concluded that small, mobile bands of hunter-gatherers sporadically used the cave as they roamed a landscape filled with Ice Age mammals. At other times, the cave was occupied by cave hyenas and cave bears.
“The site in Ranis was occupied during several short-term stays, and not as a huge campsite,” explained Marcel Weiss, an archaeologist from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany and another research leader involved in the studies. Bones and stone artifacts found in the cave indicated that these early Homo sapiens hunted large mammals such as reindeer, horses, bison, and woolly rhinoceroses.
“It is interesting that the diet of both these early Homo sapiens and late Neanderthals appears to be focused on large terrestrial game, which could have led to areas of competition,” said Geoff Smith, a zooarchaeologist from the University of Kent who led one of the studies. “However, we still need additional data points to fully understand the role and impact of climate and incoming Homo sapiens groups in the eventual extinction of Neanderthals in Europe.”
The research also resolved a debate regarding the makers of a specific set of stone artifacts found in Europe, known as the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (LRJ) culture. These artifacts include leaf-shaped stone blades used as spear tips for hunting. Many experts had previously hypothesized that these artifacts were made by Neanderthals. However, their presence at Ranis, without any evidence of Neanderthals, suggests that they were actually made by Homo sapiens.
“These blade points have been found from Poland and Czechia, over Germany and Belgium, into the British Isles, and we can now assume they most likely represent an early presence of Homo sapiens all over this northern region,” said Smith.
The bones were identified based on mitochondrial DNA, which reflects maternal heredity. Further analysis of nuclear DNA, which includes genetic information from both parents, may provide more insights, including whether Homo sapiens at Ranis interbred with Neanderthals.
The Ilsenhöhle cave was initially excavated in the 1930s, with bones and stone artifacts discovered, but the work was interrupted by World War Two. From 2016 to 2022, researchers re-excavated the cave, uncovering more bones and artifacts. DNA sequencing on newly found and previously unearthed bones confirmed the presence of Homo sapiens remains.
“The results from Ranis are amazing,” Weiss remarked, suggesting that scientists should revisit other European sites from the same time period to search for similar evidence of early Homo sapiens presence.
