Discovery of the oldest modern humans in Europe

© pixabay - New evidence for the presence of Homo sapiens in western Europe more than 50,000 years ago An international team of researchers has revealed new evidence for the presence of Homo sapiens in western Europe more than 50,000 years ago. The results of a 30-year programme of research from a cave in the heart of the Rhône Valley of France show that the traditional story of the replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans was much longer and more complex than previously thought. The results of the scientifc team with participation of Tom Higham from the University of Vienna show that early humans in the region were themselves replaced by Neanderthals, before Neanderthals finally disappeared to extinction around 40,000 years ago. It has been previously thought that modern humans reached European for the first time between about 43,000 and 45,000 years ago, steadily replacing local Neanderthal populations over the course of several thousand years. At the site of Grotte Mandrin in the Rhône Valley of southern France, however, researchers led by Dr Ludovic Slimak of the Université Toulouse have found evidence for occupation by modern humans at a much earlier date than ever seen before. High precision dating using radiocarbon and a method of sediment dating called Optically Stimulated Luminescence, or OSL, shows that an archaeological horizon which contains evidence for Homo sapiens dates to 54,000 years ago. This is 10 to 12,000 years earlier than other sites in western Europe.