Early dispersal of modern humans in Europe and implications for Neanderthal behaviour

• Authors: BENAZZI Stefano; DOUKA Katarina; FORNAI Cinzia; BAUER Catherine C.; KULLMER Ottmar; SVOBODA Jiří; PAP Ildikó; MALLEGNI Francesco; BAYLE Priscilla; COQUERELLE Michael; CONDEMI Silvana; RONCHITELLI Annamaria; HARVATI Katarina; WEBER Gerhard
• Year of publication: 2011
• Type: Article in Periodical
• Magazine / Source: Nature
• MU Faculty or unit: Faculty of Science
• Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature10617
• Field: Archaeology, anthropology, ethnology
• Keywords: modern humans; Neanderthals; behavior; Europe; Grotta del Cavallo; paleoanthropology
• Description: The appearance of anatomically modern humans in Europe and the nature of the transition from the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic are matters of intense debate. Most researches accepted that before the arrival of anatomically modern humans, Neanderthals had adopted several transitional technocomplexes. However the actual fossil evidence associated with these assembladges is scant and fragmentary. We reanalyse the deciduous molars from Grotta del Cavallo (southern Italy), associated with the Uluzzian and originally classified as Neanderthal. Using two independent morphometric methods based on microtomographic data, we show that the Cavallo specimens can be attributed to anatomically modern humans. In addition, new chronometric data for the Uluzzian layers of Grotta del Cavallo obtained from associated shell beads and show that the teeth must date to ~45,000–43,000 calendar years before present. The Cavallo human remains are therefore the oldest known European anatomically modern humans.