Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Unexpectedly recent dates for human remains from Vogelherd

Abstract

The human skeletal remains from the Vogelherd cave in the Swabian Jura of southwestern Germany are at present seen as the best evidence that modern humans produced the artefacts of the early Aurignacian1. Radiocarbon measurements from all the key fossils from Vogelherd show that these human remains actually date to the late Neolithic, between 3,900 and 5,000 radiocarbon years before present (bp). Although many questions remain unresolved, these results weaken the arguments for the Danube Corridor hypothesis2—that there was an early migration of modern humans into the Upper Danube drainage—and strengthen the view that Neanderthals may have contributed significantly to the development of Upper Palaeolithic cultural traits independent of the arrival of modern humans3,4.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Map showing the location of Vogelherd cave.
Figure 2: Stratigraphic location of the cranium and mandible (Stetten 1).

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Churchill, S. E. & Smith, F. H. Makers of the Early Aurignacian of Europe. Yb. Phys. Anthropol. 43, 61–115 (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Conard, N. J. & Bolus, M. Radiocarbon dating the appearance of modern humans and the timing of cultural innovations in Europe: new results and new challenges. J. Hum. Evol. 44, 331–371 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Richter, J. ‘Out of Africa II’ Die Theorie über die Einwanderung des modernen Menschen nach Europa auf dem archäologischen Prüfstand. Archäol. Inform. 19, 67–73 (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  4. D'Errico, F. The invisible frontier. A multiple species model for the origin of behavioral modernity. Evol. Anthropol. 12, 188–202 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Boule, M. Les Hommes Fossiles (Mason et Cie, Paris, 1921)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Stringer, C. & Gamble, C. Search of the Neanderthals (Thames & Hudson, London, 1993)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Klein, R. The Human Career, 2nd edn (Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago, 1999)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Stringer, C., Hublin, J. J. & Vandermeersch, B. in The Origins of Modern Humans (eds Smith, F. & Spencer, F.) 51–135 (Alan Liss, New York, 1984)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Henry-Gambier, D. Les fossiles de Cro-Magnon (Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, Dordogne): nouvelles données sur leur position chronologique et leur attribution culturelle. Bull. Mém. Soc. Anthropol. Paris 14, 89–112 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Svoboda, J. The depositional context of the Early Upper Paleolithic human fossils from the Konĕprusy (Zlatý kůň) and Mladeč caves. Czech Republic. J. Hum. Evol. 38, 523–536 (2000)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Svoboda, J., van der Plicht, J. & Kuželka, V. Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic human fossils from Moravia and Bohemia (Czech Republic): some new 14C dates. Antiquity 76, 957–962 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Riek, G. Die Eiszeitjägerstation am Vogelherd im Lonetal I (Heine, Tübingen, 1934)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Riek, G. Paläolithische Station mit Tierplastiken und menschlichen Skelettresten bei Stetten ob Lontal. Germania 16, 1–8 (1932)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Conard, N. J., Niven, L., Mueller, K. & Stuart, A. The chronostratigraphy of the Upper Paleolithic of Vogelherd. Mitt. Ges. Urgesch. 12, 73–86 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Gieseler, W. Bericht über die jungpaläolithischen Skelettreste von Stetten ob Lontal bei Ulm. Verh. Ges. Phys. Anthropol. 8, 41–48 (1937)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Gieseler, W. Die urgeschichtlichen Menschen-Funde aus dem Lonetal und ihre Bedeutung für die deutsche Urgeschichte. Jahresbande Wiss. Akad. Tübingen NCD Dozentbundes 1, 102–127 (1940)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Czarnetzki, A. in Urgeschichte in Baden-Württemberg (ed. Müller-Beck, H.) 217–240 (Konrad Theiss, Stuttgart, 1983)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Churchill, S. E. & Smith, F. H. A modern human humerus from the early Aurignacian of Vogelherdhöhle (Stetten, Germany). Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 112, 251–273 (2000)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Scholz, M. et al. Genomic differentiation of Neanderthals and anatomically modern man allows a fossil-DNA-based classification of morphologically indistinguishable hominid bones. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 66, 1927–1932 (2000)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Bruhn, F., Duhr, A., Grootes, P. M., Mintrop, A. & Nadeau, M.-J. Chemical removal of conservation substances by ‘Soxhlet’-type extraction. Radiocarbon 43, 229–237 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Grootes, P. M., Nadeau, M. J. & Rieck, A. 14C AMS at the Leibniz-Labor: radiocarbon dating and isotope research. Nuclear Instruments and Methods (in the press)

  22. Nadeau, M. J. et al. The Leibniz-Labor AMS facility at the Christian-Albrechts-University, Kiel, Germany. Nucl. Instrum. Methods B 123, 22–30 (1997)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. Stuiver, M. & Polach, H. Discussion: reporting of 14C data. Radiocarbon 19, 355–363 (1977)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Smith, F. H., Trinkaus, E., Pettitt, P. B., Karavanić, I. & Paunović, M. Direct radiocarbon dates for Vindija G1 and Velika Pećina Late Pleistocene hominid remains. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 96, 12281–12286 (1999)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. Trinkaus, E. et al. An early modern human from the Peştera cu Oase, Romania. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 100, 11231–11236 (2003)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  26. Beck, J. W. et al. Extremely large variations of atmospheric 14C concentration during the last glacial period. Science 292, 2453–2458 (2001)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  27. Hughen, K. A. et al. 14C activity and global carbon cycle changes over the past 50,000 years. Science 303, 202–207 (2004)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  28. Voelker, A. H. L., Grootes, P. M., Nadeau, M. J. & Sarnthein, M. Radiocarbon levels in the Iceland Sea from 25–53 kyr and their link to the earth's magnetic field intensity. Radiocarbon 42, 437–452 (2000)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Van Kreveld, S. et al. Potential links between surging ice sheets, circulation changes, and the Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles in the Irminger Sea, 60–18 kyr. Paleoceanography 15, 425–442 (2000)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  30. Hublin, J. J., Barroso Ruiz, C., Medina Lara, P., Fontugne, M. & Reyss, J.-L. The Mousterian site of Zafarraya (Andalucia, Spain): dating and implications on the palaeolithic peopling processes of Western Europe. C.R. Acad. Sci. 321, 931–937 (1995)

    CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to M. Bolus, C. Pusch, H. Floss, M. Haidle, M. Malina, L. Niven and E. Trinkaus for their assistance and discussions, and we thank the Leibniz team for cleaning and dating the bones. This work was funded by the Landesdenkmalamt Baden-Württemberg, the Alb-Donau-Kreis, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, and the Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nicholas J. Conard.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Conard, N., Grootes, P. & Smith, F. Unexpectedly recent dates for human remains from Vogelherd. Nature 430, 198–201 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02690

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02690

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing