Skip to content
Environment, General News

Oldest evidence of first humans in Europe unearthed

La Trobe University 2 mins read

La Trobe University and the Nuclear Physics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences have discovered the oldest known human occupation of Europe lies near the town of Korolevo in western Ukraine.

New findings, published in Nature, by an international team led by the Nuclear Physics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences have confirmed that stone tools at Korolevo are 1.4 million years old.

La Trobe Archaeologist and director of The Australian Archaeomagnetism Laboratory, Professor Andy Herries, who helped date the site, said the find was important because it furthered understanding of the earliest dispersal of our direct ancestor Homo erectus and how Europe was inhabited by early members of this species.

“Previously it was thought that out earliest ancestors could not survive in colder, more northerly latitudes without the use of fire or complex stone tool technology. Yet here we have evidence of Homo erectus living further north than ever previously documented at this early time period.” 

The data from Korolevo adds to an emerging picture of the earliest human occupation of Europe that also includes archaeology and fossils from the sites of Artapuerca and Orce in Spain. Originally it was thought that this occupation may have come from northern Africa across the straits of Gibraltar, but the evidence from Korolevo instead suggests that they came from eastern Europe.    

“Our team used cosmogenic nuclide burial dating to precisely date the sediment layers containing the stone tools,” Professor Herries said.

“This method is based on dating the time at which quartz has become buried in the sequence. When the quartz is on the surface, it accumulates radioactive isotopes of Aluminium and Beryllium due to cosmic rays, but when it becomes buried, it is shielded from the cosmic rays and the two radioactive isotopes begin to decay at different rates. This gives us a clock to be able to date the age at which the quartz was buried.” 

The four-year long research project involved scientists from five countries and more than ten research institutions from around the world.

Professor Herries said the research follows on from his research at Drimolen Cave in South Africa where his team discovered the oldest fossil of Homo erectus dating to two million years ago. From here Homo erectus appears to have migrated into western Asia at the gateway to Europe by 1.8 million years ago and then made its way to what is now China and Indonesia by perhaps 1.6 to 1.4 million years ago.

The stone tools from Korolevo indicate that populations of Homo erectus also moved north-west into Europe by 1.4 million years ago. The data collected as part of the recent study suggests that Homo erectus made its way into the region that is now Ukraine during warm interglacial periods.

“It remains to be seen whether this was part of a more extensive and as yet undiscovered occupation of Europe at this time,” Professor Herries said.

Professor Herries hopes to visit Korolevo to undertake palaeomagnetic analysis in the future, but this is currently impossible due to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“The current work illustrates the importance and uniqueness to the world of the Ukrainian archaeological record that is currently under threat,” Professor Herries said.

Read the report here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07151-3


Contact details:

Elaine Cooney
E.Cooney@latrobe.edu.au
0487448734

More from this category

  • General News, Regional Country Services
  • 18/10/2024
  • 10:35
NSW Office of Sport

Play your part in keeping children safe in sport

Play your part in keeping children safe in sport The NSW Government will host a series of interactive child safety workshops in the Central West and Western Plains next week to help local sporting organisations keep children safe from harm and abuse in sport. The NSW Office of Sport has partnered with the Office of the Children’s Guardian to deliver the workshops which will provide practical information on the simple steps sports clubs can take to protect children. The workshops will be held at Dubbo, Orange and Bathurst on 22, 23 and 24 October and will be delivered by MattSibley,…

  • Contains:
  • Environment, Science
  • 18/10/2024
  • 09:50
UNSW Sydney

Expert Available: UNSW Scientists to comment on ‘tar balls’ on Sydney Beaches

A team of scientists from UNSW have analysed the mysterious unknown debris that washed up on Sydney beaches this week. Hundreds of the sticky blobs have washed up on shore throughout the week, including at Coogee Beach, Gordon’s Bay and Maroubra beach, withfurther beach closuresannounced. Randwick City Council said, preliminary test results “show the material is a hydrocarbon-based pollutant which is consistent with the makeup of tar balls”. “Australia’s beaches, including recently along Sydney’s coastline, have seen the arrival of tar balls – dark, spherical, sticky blobs formed from weathered oil,” says Professor Alex Donald, from theSchool of Chemistry who,…

  • General News
  • 17/10/2024
  • 23:11
Wood Mackenzie

US utilities to face significant challenge as power demand surges for the first time in decades

Some regions in US to see 15% electricity demand growth through 2029; prices could escalateLONDON and HOUSTON and SINGAPORE, Oct. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- US power demand has remained essentially flat for the past decade, but this is all about to change as a pending surge in demand growth will be the biggest challenge for utility companies in decades, according to the latest Horizons report from Wood Mackenzie.According to the report, “Gridlock: the demand dilemma facing the US power industry” US electricity demand growth will be between 4% and 15% through 2029, depending on the region, with burgeoning data-centre…

Media Outreach made fast, easy, simple.

Feature your press release on Medianet's News Hub every time you distribute with Medianet. Pay per release or save with a subscription.