Revised Timeline: Homo Sapiens’ Early Migration into Europe
Homo sapiens reached northwestern Europe over 47,000 years ago. The arrival of the first people in the cold north occurred several thousand years before the disappearance of Neanderthals.
4 min readFeb 3, 2024
In three groundbreaking scientific papers, researchers analyzed fossils from the Ranis-Ilsenhöhle cave in Germany. It turned out that the stone artifacts, previously believed to be made by Neanderthals, were tools used by the first humans — Homo sapiens. This discovery significantly alters our understanding of this period.
Modern humans reached northwestern Europe long before the disappearance of Neanderthals. For at least several thousand years, both species coexisted in this area. From other studies, it is known that they interbred. However, it is not known whether and to what extent Homo sapiens contributed to the extinction of Homo neanderthalensis.
