Europeans reached the higher latitudes of Europe by 45,000 years ago
Stone tools and anatomically modern human remains at a Roman Archaeologue, Ilsenhöhle, France. Contribution of M. Mylopotamitaki et al
Analyses of stone tools and human skeletal remains can help to determine whether specific excavated levels at archaeological sites are associated with Neanderthals or anatomically modern humans (with a body form similar to ours) during the period when both groups were present in Europe. Mylopotamitaki et al.1, writing in Nature, and Pederzani et al.2 and Smith et al.3, writing in Nature Ecology & Evolution, report their analyses of Ilsenhöhle, an archaeological site from this period near Ranis, Germany. The findings show that the environment in the region is more polluted than previously thought, and identify the inhabitants of a stone-tool industry that was unknown before.
Bachellerie, F. Quelle Unité pour le Châtelperronien?: The industries lithiques of Trois Gisements Aquitains de Plein Air are Le Basté, Bidart, and Canaule II. The thesis was for the PhD. Bordeaux 1 (2011).
Hominin remains at the eponymous Site Ilsenhöhle in Ranis (north-western ice core)
The hominin remains from the 2016–2022 and 1932–1938 excavations are associated with a range of animal taxa (Supplementary Table 9). The total number of taxa was identified by the analyses as 17 with a predominance of reindeer. The other taxa included Bovinae and bison priscus, as well as horse and megafauna. A variety of carnivores were also identified, dominated by cave bear (Ursus spelaeus; Supplementary Table 9). The faunal record of central Europe is consistent with this species composition. The analyses show that the bones of large carnivores were accumulated with occasional, short-term site use by human groups. It’s like what has been observed at other sites. Our sedimentological analyses indicate a temperature decline from layer 9 towards colder climatic conditions in layer 7 (Supplementary Table 4). This agrees with stable isotope analyses of equid teeth that indicate a temperature decline with low temperatures and an open steppe environment during all phases of the LRJ occupations. The temperatures that were reconstructed for the lowest phase were 7–15 C cooler than the modern day, and they were consistent with a highly seasonal subarctic climate. On the basis of comparing the timing of the Greenland interstadials with that in the northern ice core project, the LRJ occupations overlap with a variety of climate phases.
The site Ilsenhöhle in Ranis (50° 39.7563′ N, 11° 33.9139′ E, hereafter Ranis) is one of the eponymous LRJ sites based on its unique composition of bifacial and unifacial points. The Orla River valley is where Ranis is located. 1a). The south-facing cliff of the Permian limestone reef was the location of the cave. 1a and Supplementary Fig. The 2a was mentioned. The collapsed large and high chamber only has two short chambers left. Fieldwork started in 1926, continuing in 1929 and 1931, but the site was mainly excavated by W. M. Hülle between 1932 and 1938 (Extended Data Figs. Supplementary figs. 3 and 1b are in ref. 17 Near the base of the 8-m sequence, these excavations revealed a complex stratigraphy of five layers (from bottom to top: XI to VII), including a layer (variably named X and Graue Schicht; Fig. 1a) rich in bifacial leaf points (Fig. 1g and Supplementary Fig. 2c) and with Jerzmanowice blade points (Fig. 1f and Supplementary Fig. 2d The Ranisian is represented in this layer by the LRJ.
We carried out a combination of two proteomic screening approaches (matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization–time-of-flight mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry) and morphological identification on bone specimens from the 2016–2022 and 1932–1938 excavations (Methods). We were able to retrieve 13 hominin bone specimens in total (Extended Data Table 1). The bones were discovered from layer 9 and layer 8 during the 2016–2022 excavation. Among material from the 1932–1938 excavation, we identified nine additional hominin bone specimens, four through proteomic analysis, all from layer X (specimen IDs: R10318, R10355, R10396 and R10400), and five through morphological analysis from boxes labelled with layer X, layers IX and X, or layers X and XI (specimen IDs: R10873, R10874, R10875, R10876 and R10879; Fig. 1a and Supplementary Table 5). The boxes with mixed layer tags from the 1932–1938 excavation are a result of the expedited excavation methods from the 1930s. The hominin remains were in most cases, however, excavated on the same day or within a day of the discovery of LRJ artefacts in the same squares (Extended Data Fig. 2).
To support the identification of endogenous proteomes in all proteomically identified hominin specimens, we evaluated the amino acid degradation and their coverage per identified position. Proteome deamidation measurements (matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization–time-of-flight and liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry) of the fauna revealed diagenesis of collagen type I consistent with all of the hominin remains (Extended Data Fig. 4 and Supplementary Fig. 10). Finally, we compared our results with the existing reference proteome of Homininae19 and calculated the proteomic coverage per amino acid position for all of the identified hominin specimens (Extended Data Fig. 5). Our proteomic sequencing results showed that amino acid positions recovered for all hominin specimens analysed with the species by proteome investigation pipeline19 matched with the Homininae reference proteome. Due to the limitations of the existing proteomic reference database, there won’t be further hominin populations classification.
