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.

  • Letter
  • Published:

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

Nature volume 479, pages 525–528 (2011)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

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 researchers accept that before the arrival of anatomically modern humans, Neanderthals had adopted several ‘transitional’ technocomplexes. Two of these, the Uluzzian of southern Europe and the Châtelperronian of western Europe, are key to current interpretations regarding the timing of arrival of anatomically modern humans in the region and their potential interaction with Neanderthal populations. They are also central to current debates regarding the cognitive abilities of Neanderthals and the reasons behind their extinction1,2,3,4,5,6. However, the actual fossil evidence associated with these assemblages is scant and fragmentary7,8,9,10, and recent work has questioned the attribution of the Châtelperronian to Neanderthals on the basis of taphonomic mixing and lithic analysis11,12. Here we reanalyse the deciduous molars from the Grotta del Cavallo (southern Italy), associated with the Uluzzian and originally classified as Neanderthal13,14. Using two independent morphometric methods based on microtomographic data, we show that the Cavallo specimens can be attributed to anatomically modern humans. The secure context of the teeth provides crucial evidence that the makers of the Uluzzian technocomplex were therefore not Neanderthals. In addition, new chronometric data for the Uluzzian layers of Grotta del Cavallo obtained from associated shell beads and included within a Bayesian age model 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, confirming a rapid dispersal of modern humans across the continent before the Aurignacian and the disappearance of Neanderthals.

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

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

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

Figure 1: Occlusal view of the deciduous molars from the Uluzzian layers of Grotta del Cavallo (Apulia, southern Italy).
Figure 2: Shape–space PCA plots of dM 1 crown outlines and dM 2 cervical outlines.
Figure 3: Cross-sections of Cavallo-B and Cavallo-C for two-dimensional enamel thickness analysis.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. d’Errico, F., Zilhão, J., Julien, M., Baffier, D. & Pélegrin, J. Neanderthal acculturation in Western Europe? A critical review of the evidence and its interpretation. Curr. Anthropol. 39, 1–44 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Gravina, B., Mellars, P. & Ramsey, C. B. Radiocarbon dating of interstratified Neanderthal and early modern human occupations at the Châtelperronian type-site. Nature 438, 51–56 (2005)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Mellars, P., Gravina, B. & Bronk Ramsey, C. Confirmation of Neanderthal/modern human interstratification at the Châtelperronian type-site. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 104, 3657–3662 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Zilhão, J. et al. Analysis of Aurignacian interstratification at the Châtelperronian-type site and implications for the behavioral modernity of Neandertals. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 103, 12643–12648 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Ronchitelli, A., Boscato, P. & Gambassini, P. in La lunga storia di Neandertal. Biologia e comportamento (eds Facchini, F. & Belcastro, G. M. ) (Jaca Book, 2009)

    Google Scholar 

  6. d’Errico, F., Borgia, V. & Ronchitelli, A. Uluzzian bone technology and its implications for the origin of behavioural modernity. Quat. Int.. 10.1016/j.quaint.2011.03.039 (in the press)

  7. Lévêque, F. & Vandermeersch, B. M. Découverte de restes humains dans un niveau castelperronien à Saint-Césaire (Charente-Maritime). CR Acad. Sci. Paris 291, 187–189 (1980)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Hublin, J. J., Spoor, F., Braun, M., Zonneveld, F. & Condemi, S. A late Neanderthal associated with Upper Palaeolithic artefacts. Nature 381, 224–226 (1996)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Harvati, K., Panagopoulou, E. & Karkanas, P. First Neanderthal remains from Greece: the evidence from Lakonis. J. Hum. Evol. 45, 465–473 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Bailey, S. E. & Hublin, J. J. Dental remains from the Grotte du Renne at Arcy-sur-Cure (Yonne). J. Hum. Evol. 50, 485–508 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Bar-Yosef, O. & Bordes, J. G. Who were the makers of the Châtelperronian culture? J. Hum. Evol. 59, 586–593 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Higham, T. et al. Chronology of the Grotte du Renne (France) and implications for the context of ornaments and human remains within the Châtelperronian. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 20234–20239 (2010)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Palma di Cesnola, A. & Messeri, M. P. Quatre dents humaines paléolithiques trouvées dans des cavernes de l’Italie Méridionale. L’Anthropologie 71, 249–262 (1967)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Churchill, S. E. & Smith, F. H. Makers of the early Aurignacian of Europe. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 113 (Suppl. 31). 61–115 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Palma di Cesnola, A. L’Uluzzien: faciès italien du leptolithique archaique. L’Anthropologie 93, 783–812 (1989)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Riel-Salvatore, J. in Sourcebook of Paleolithic Transitions (eds Camps, M. & Chauhan, P. ) (Springer, 2009)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Messeri, P. & Palma di Cesnola, A. Contemporaneità di paleantropi e fanerantropi sulle coste dell'talia meridionale. Zephyrus 26–27, 7–30 (1976)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Benazzi, S. et al. Comparison of dental measurement systems for taxonomic assignment of first molars. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 144, 342–354 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Olejniczak, A. J. et al. Dental tissue proportions and enamel thickness in Neandertal and modern human molars. J. Hum. Evol. 55, 12–23 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Smith, B. H. Patterns of molar wear in hunter-gatherers and agriculturists. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 63, 39–56 (1984)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Reimer, P. J. et al. IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51, 1111–1150 (2009)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Boscato, P. & Crezzini, J. Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition in Southern Italy: Uluzzian macromammals from Grotta del Cavallo (Apulia). Quat. Int.. 10.1016/j.quaint.2011.03.028 (in the press)

  23. Müller, U. C. et al. The role of climate in the spread of modern humans into Europe. Quat. Sci. Rev. 30, 273–279 (2011)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  24. Higham, T. European Middle and Upper Palaeolithic radiocarbon dates are often older than they look: problems with previous dates and some remedies. Antiquity 85, 235–249 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Pinhasi, R., Higham, T. F., Golovanova, L. V. & Doronichev, V. B. Revised age of late Neanderthal occupation and the end of the Middle Paleolithic in the northern Caucasus. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 8611–8616 (2011)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  26. Zilhão, J. in Continuity and Discontinuity in the Peopling of Europe (eds Condemi, S. & Weniger, G. C. ) (Springer, 2011)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Mellars, P. The impossible coincidence: a single species model for the origins of modern human behavior in Europe. Evol. Anthropol. 14, 12–27 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Martin, L. B. Significance of enamel thickness in hominoid evolution. Nature 314, 260–263 (1985)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  29. R Development Core Team . R: a language and environment for statistical computing. 〈http://www.r-project.org〉 (2008)

  30. Rohlf, F. J. & Slice, D. E. Extensions of the Procrustes method for the optimal superimposition of landmarks. Syst. Zool. 39, 40–59 (1990)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Puglia which facilitated the excavation of Grotta del Cavallo over the years. We also thank M. A. Gorgoglione who supported and helped in the collection of samples for 14C dating and encouraged the collaboration with the University of Siena for the study of the archaeological remains. P. Boscato, H. Klempererova, F. Ranaldo and S. Ricci have all helped in aspects of the research and are especially thanked. We are grateful to G. Gruppioni for providing the Italian modern human sample used in this work. We thank M. Francken, B. Trautmann, I. Trautmann, H. Scherf, M. Dockner and R. Ginner for technical assistance. We thank F. L. Bookstein for suggestions on statistics. Access to the fossil specimens was made possible by the Croatian National History Museum, the French Musée National de Préhistoire, the French Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paleoanthropology, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen and the NESPOS Database 2011 (https://www.nespos.org/display/openspace/Home). We acknowledge the Centre de Microtomographie (Université de Poitiers), the Vienna micro-CT Laboratory (University of Vienna), VISCOM AG Hannover, the Paleoanthropology High Resolution Computing Tomography Laboratory (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen), the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility beamline ID17, the AST-RX platform (French Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle) and the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU). The authors would like to thank T. Higham and R. E. M. Hedges for their input in the radiocarbon dating part of the project, for important comments and proofreading this manuscript. The radiocarbon dating was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) NRCF programme. K.D. is part of the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. This work was supported by the NSF 01-120 Hominid Grant 2007, A.E.R.S. Dental Medicine Organisations GmbH FA547013, the Fondation Fyssen, the DFG INST 37/706-1 FUGG and the NERC Grant (NE/D014077/1).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria

    Stefano Benazzi, Cinzia Fornai & Gerhard W. Weber

  2. Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK

    Katerina Douka

  3. Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, Paleoanthropology, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Rümelnstrasse 23, Tübingen 72070, Germany

    Catherine C. Bauer & Katerina Harvati

  4. Department of Paleoanthropology and Messel Research, Senckenberg Research Institute Frankfurt, Senckenberganlage 25, D-60325 Frankfurt, Germany

    Ottmar Kullmer

  5. Institute of Archaeology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Královopolská 147, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic

    Jiří Svoboda

  6. Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Vinarˇská 5, 603 00 Brno, Czech Republic

    Jiří Svoboda

  7. Department of Anthropology, Hungarian Natural History Museum, Ludovika tér 2-6, 1083 Budapest, Hungary

    Ildikó Pap

  8. Department of Biology, University of Pisa, Via S. Maria 53, 56126 Pisa, Italy

    Francesco Mallegni

  9. UMR 5199 PACEA, Université Bordeaux 1, avenue des Facultés, 33405 Talence, France

    Priscilla Bayle

  10. Department of Paleobiology Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCM-CSIC), Paleoanthropology group, C/ José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain

    Michael Coquerelle

  11. UMR 6578 CNRS/Aix Marseille/EFS, Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Bioculturelle, Faculté de Médecine/Secteur Nord, CS80011 Bd Pierre Dramard 13344, Marseille Cedex 15, France

    Silvana Condemi

  12. Department of Environmental Sciences “G. Sarfatti”, U.R. Prehistoric Ecology, University of Siena, via T. Pendola 62, 53100 Siena, Italy

    Annamaria Ronchitelli

  13. Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoecology, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Rümelnstrasse 23, Tübingen 72070, Germany

    Katerina Harvati

Authors
  1. Stefano Benazzi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Katerina Douka
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Cinzia Fornai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Catherine C. Bauer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Ottmar Kullmer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Jiří Svoboda
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Ildikó Pap
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Francesco Mallegni
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Priscilla Bayle
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Michael Coquerelle
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Silvana Condemi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Annamaria Ronchitelli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Katerina Harvati
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. Gerhard W. Weber
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

S.B., F.M., K.H. and G.W.W. initiated and organized the project. S.B., C.C.B., P.B., J.S., I.P., K.H. and G.W.W. collected the fossils and modern human sample. S.B. and C.F. carried out the dental measurements. S.B. and M.C. analysed the data. K.D. initiated and performed the radiocarbon dating project. S.B., K.D., C.F., O.K., M.C., S.C., A.R., K.H. and G.W.W. discussed the results. S.B., K.D., C.F., M.C., S.C., A.R., K.H. and G.W.W. wrote and edited the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stefano Benazzi.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

The file contains Supplementary Methods and Results, Supplementary Figures 1-5 with legends, Supplementary Tables 1-6 and additional references. (PDF 651 kb)

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Benazzi, S., Douka, K., Fornai, C. et al. Early dispersal of modern humans in Europe and implications for Neanderthal behaviour. Nature 479, 525–528 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10617

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10617

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

Advanced 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