What is known about the surprising discovery

May be stone tools found in Ukraine Earliest reliable evidence of human presence in Europe. The creators of these tools were not Homo sapiens, but close extinct relatives of our species.

Scientists analyzed findings from the Korolevo archaeological site in Western Ukraine; Stone cutters, especially from the Paleolithic period (the period lasting from 2.6 million years ago to 10,500 years ago), were unearthed here. The parking lot itself opened in 1974.

Works from Korolevo made by hominids, a group that includes modern humans and extinct species that are closer to humans than any other animal. Although it is not known exactly which species created these tools, scientists can make a few guesses.

Ukrainian archaeologist Vitaly Usyk / Photo: Yana Plavets, CAS Apparatus Foreign Relations Department/Roman Garba/Vitaly Usyk

We have long known that other human species left Africa long before Homo sapiens, who left Africa about 270,000 years ago. The now extinct human species migrated from Africa to Eurasia at least 1.8 million years ago.

The oldest artifacts in Korolevo are stone tools and objects left at the bottom of the river. Made in the Oldowan style, the most primitive form of human toolsResearchers note: Similar tools have been found at the earliest known human settlements in Africa, Europe and Asia. The artifacts at Korolevo were buried by river sediments and later by windblown dust, and were eventually discovered by quarry workers.

Scientist Roman Garba next to the installation that helped define the age of stone tools / Photo: Yana Plavets, CAS Apparatus Foreign Relations Department/Roman Garba/Vitaly Usyk

Previous studies have not been able to accurately date the earliest artifacts from Korolev. In a new study, scientists used a method of dating graves using cosmogenic nuclides based on cosmic rays (high-energy particles that constantly bombard the Earth from space). Cosmic rays can cause nuclear reactions within surface rocks and create radioactive isotopes (different versions of elements) that are normally quite rare on Earth. Because these nuclides, called cosmogenic nuclides, form when rocks rise to the surface rather than being buried underground, researchers can analyze the levels of various cosmogenic nuclides to estimate how long they remained buried.

Works from Korolevo / Photo: Yana Plavets, CAS Devices External Affairs Department/Roman Garba/Vitaly Usyk

Thus it was determined The oldest stone tools at Korolevo may be around 1.4 million years old. This means the site contains the earliest known evidence of hominid presence in Europe.

Although the tools are too old to be the work of modern humans or our closest extinct relatives, Neanderthals and Denisovans, It may belong to Homo erectusAn extinct human species that first appeared in Africa about 2 million years ago and later spread to Asia and Europe.

Works from Korolevo / Photo: Yana Plavets, CAS Devices External Affairs Department/Roman Garba/Vitaly Usyk

The Queen is the northernmost outpost of the species we think of today as Homo erectus, and a testament to that ancestor’s fearlessness. It is quite possible that sites further north were buried deeply or destroyed by glaciers.
– says study co-author John Jansen, senior researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague.

Korolevo archaeological formation / Photo: Yana Plavets, CAS Apparatus Foreign Affairs Department/Roman Garba/Vitaly Usyk

Korolevo archaeological formation / Photo: Yana Plavets, CAS Apparatus Foreign Affairs Department/Roman Garba/Vitaly Usyk

colonization of Europe

Previous studies have shown that hominids lived in the Caucasus Mountains in Asia about 1.8 million years ago and in the territory of modern France and Spain about 1.2 million years ago. Queen’s sits halfway between these places in Asia and Europe; So we now have evidence to suggest that hominids may have colonized Europe from east to west.

“The age of stone tools at Korolevo confirms an old hypothesis about the direction of the first European colonization”Jansen adds. One possible route to the west of Ukraine would be through the Pannonian basin in southeastern Central Europe.

During warm periods of Earth’s history, known as interglacial periods, glaciers retreated and new landscapes, such as Europe, opened up to early human exploration. The oldest artifacts at Korolewo were buried during one of the interglacial periods, which were among the warmest periods of the last several million years; This may help explain why the hominids that produced them were able to disperse so far north.

Although the region experienced a warm period 1.4 million years ago, its location further north than Africa was still subject to significant seasonal variability. This means that Early human species were more behaviorally flexible in their adaptationsthan previously thought.