
A new archaeological discovery at the Ranis site in eastern Germany adds a new, and important, piece to the complex puzzle of the emergence of Homo sapiens in Europe. Thanks to similar discoveries made in the caves of Bacho Kiro in Bulgaria and Zlata Kun in the Czech Republic, it became known that Homo sapiens got to Europe 45,000 years ago.
He passed through the Balkans, through the Middle East and penetrated to the center of Europe. However, these first migration attempts were sporadic and without much success. The discovery in Germany casts doubt on this idea and shows that Homo sapiens has already penetrated Northern Europe. Moreover, it seeks to explain the mystery that hung over the creators of the material cultures of that time for almost a century.
Ranis, for example, is a place where archaeological research began almost a hundred years ago. In addition, it is one of the most famous places in Europe, which gave its name to the mysterious material culture of Ranisia. It must be said that Ranizka was placed alongside two other similar cultures (Linkombi-Ranizka-Yerzhmanovitzka, abbreviated LRJ) in what experts call transitional cultures. Cultures making the transition from the Middle Paleolithic (with technologies associated with Neanderthal man) to the Upper Paleolithic (attributed to Homo sapiens), with elements found in both periods. And they exist under different names all over Europe between 40,000 and 45,000 years ago (Chatelperon, Bogunic, LRJ, Uluzian, Seletian, etc.).
The fact that human fossils have never been found in such a context made their attribution to the human species more than problematic. We don’t even mention the fact that their association with the human species fundamentally changes, depending on the attribution, the question of human evolution, especially what it means in terms of cognition and cultural and technological progress.
We will only add that sometime in the 1970s and 1980s Neanderthal fossils were discovered in the context of Chatelperron, another transitional culture characteristic of southwestern France and northern Spain (fossils were found in the caves of Grotte du Rennes and La Roche and Pierrot). Hence the “revolution” that followed Neanderthal man, which was simply associated with technology and cultural progress that was thought to be unique to H. sapiens. Recently, however, these fossils have been relegated to the category of simple intrusions, and the problem has once again remained in the fishtail.
Returning to the Ranis site, archaeologists managed to recover several extremely fragmented human remains between 2016-2020. And their genetic analysis proved that they belong to individuals of our species. The findings, presented in no fewer than four studies published in the journal Nature (you can find them here, here, here and here), are extremely important.
As I said, they prove that Homo sapiens created at least one transitional culture, not Homo neanderthalensis. Then their age approx. 45,000 years, clearly shows that “ours” entered an extremely harsh environment and territory in Europe, where they were thought to have arrived much later. In fact, some experts emphasize in the mentioned studies that adaptation to the cold and European glacial environment would have appeared in our species thousands of years later.
And the surprises don’t end there. Genetic analysis of human fragments, including some discovered in the 1930s, shows that 12 of the 13 fragments, although discovered at different times, belong to the same mitochondrial lineage. More precisely, along the same maternal line. This means that they belong either to one individual or to several individuals related on the maternal line. Even more interestingly, the mitochondrial DNA matches a skull found in Zlaty Kun, Czech Republic, which is relatively contemporary to the fossils found in Germany. Another association with deep implications.
From the faunal data provided during the excavations at the site of Ranis, it is clear that these individuals lived in a glacial environment (Arctic steppe), but they were also experienced hunters. The evidence is the remains of a reindeer, woolly rhinoceros, cave bear or wild horse, which show traces of human intervention. Thus, experts say, we are dealing with a small human group, probably related by blood, but extremely mobile.
This conclusion is also supported by the low density of animal bones and stone material, which indicates a short-term, periodic habitation. Equally important is the idea presented in one of the cited articles, which states that the presence of Homo sapiens at the site of Ranis can reach 47,500 years. Information based on the discovery of disparate artifacts at this stratigraphic level, but at this time requires additional research.
Very little is known about those pioneers of our species who came to Europe during the last ice age. Most likely, these first individuals migrated from the Middle East through Anatolia and the Balkans. Another route, at least the one used by Paleolithic human communities, was the route from the west of the Black Sea through the Caucasus and, later, the Crimea. However, it can be said that they did not leave genetic traces in the current populations.
In other words, they disappeared around 40,000 years ago with the Neanderthals after a particularly harsh climatic episode. Later, their place was taken by carriers of other material cultures, also of the genus Homo sapiens, who, a fact known for a long time, had a great advantage over the Neanderthals, not so much because of their relative technological or cognitive superiority, but because of the fact that they had a much wider demographic from which could involve other people.
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Source: Hot News

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