Science
Major find in Europe: scientists in Romania find human fossils that rewrite the history of early hominids on the continent
Researchers have found evidence that early humans arrived in Europe half a million years earlier than previously thought at a site in Romania.
Hominins are believed to have started leaving Africa around 2 million years ago, spreading out into Eurasia. The earliest indisputable fossil evidence of hominins outside of Africa comes from Dmanisi, Georgia which indicates that our ancestors were there by 1.8 million years ago.
However, there have been finds in China that predate Dmanisi by around 300,000 years. As for Europe, the oldest hominin remains that have been definitively described are from 1.4 million years ago. That is, until now.
New find in Romania rewrites early human history
The latest discovery at Grăunceanu, a site in the Olteţ River Valley of Romania, has found evidence of hominin presence in Europe which pushes back hominin arrival by about half a million years. The research was led by the Department of Sociology & Anthropology at Ohio University and was published in Nature Communications.
The team discovered evidence of multiple cut-marked bones indicative of hominin methods of defleshing prey. Analysis was able to confirm that they were not caused by damage during excavation nor carnivores or trampling. Their dating of the bones to be at least 1.95 million years old was supported by high-precision uranium-lead (U-Pb) age estimates.
The researchers acknowledge that they did not find any hominin fossils or lithics, stone tools, at the Grăunceanu site. However, they argue that their “detailed taphonomic analysis reveals clear evidence of hominin presence in the form of anthropogenic bone surface modifications at rates comparable to similarly aged and even younger sites where hominins and/or stone tools are present and well-accepted.”
With their research they argue that there was a hominin presence across Eurasia by at least 2 million years ago. They pointed out that they do not mention which hominin on purpose as there were multiple species at that time. Likewise, the earliest Homo erectus, according to current evidence, was present in South Africa and Ethiopia 2 million years ago, which would have made it impossible for them to already be spread throughout Eurasia before then.
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