The researchers who conducted the excavations last year said they were here. Earliest known evidence for the existence of Homo sapiens in Europe. In one of the archaeological levels of the cave, a child’s tooth and thousands of stone tools were found in Level E. They concluded that the child was Homo sapiens.

opening details

• Hundreds of tiny tips were found among the tools. Many are only 1 centimeter wide and weigh only a few grams. All of them are almost the same in shape and size.
• The tips are similar to others made by ancient and modern people. Some had cracks and other damage that could occur during a high-speed impact.
• Scientists created full-fledged bows and arrows by making dozens of copies of flint found near the cave, then shot the carcasses of animals. Additionally, the tips were tested on spears and darts.

Arrowheads from the Mandrin Cave / Photo: Laure Metz

These little tips can be used with nothing but bow and arrow.
– says Laure Metz, an archaeologist from the University of Aix-Marseille (France).

There are many horse bones in Mandrin Cave, and Metz suspects that the people who lived there hunted these animals and the bison that migrated from the Rhône Valley. The team found a horse thigh bone with typical injuries left by stone points.

There are also Neanderthals

Neanderthal teeth and DNA and stone tools were found above and below the E layer. This means that Neanderthals lived in this cave before and after Homo sapiens. However, no clues were found among their items – they did not adopt the use of bows and arrows even after the “expelled” of the invaders.

The study’s authors claim that stratum E represents a brief invasion of Neanderthals by Homo sapiens, more than 10,000 years before this species finally settled in Europe.

Mandrin Cave / Photo Ludovic Slimak