Modern humans and Neanderthals lived together between 1,400 and 2,900 years ago

Oct. 13 () –

Modern humans could have coexisted with Neanderthals in France and northern Spain between 1,400 and 2,900 years before the disappearance of our extinct sister species.

These findings, collected in a modeling study published in the journal Scientific Reports, contribute to a better understanding of the existence of the two species of humans in this region.

The most recent fossil evidence suggests that modern humans (‘Homo sapiens’) and Neanderthals (‘Homo neanderthalensis’) could have coexisted in Europe between 5,000 and 6,000 years before the Neanderthals became extinct. However, there is currently little evidence of their coexistence at the regional level. and it is difficult to establish when the two species appeared and disappeared in these areas.

Study author Igor Djakovic and colleagues at Leiden University in the Netherlands analyzed a dataset of 56 Neanderthal and modern human artifacts (28 for each group) from 17 archaeological sites in France and northern Europe. Spain, as well as ten other Neanderthal specimens from the same region. All the samples had been radiocarbon dated with modern and robust techniques since the year 2000 to achieve greater precision.

They used Best Linear Estimation and Bayesian probabilistic modeling to estimate date ranges for these samples and responsible populations, and infer the earliest and latest dates that these human groups might have been present at the sites. This modeling served to fill in missing parts of the archaeological record that make it difficult to estimate dates.

Based on this modelling, the authors estimate that Neanderthal artifacts first appeared between 45,343 and 44,248 years ago, and disappeared between 39,894 and 39,798 years ago. The Neanderthal extinction date, based on directly dated Neanderthal remains, is between 40,870 and 40,457 years. Modern humans are estimated to have first appeared between 42,653 and 42,269 years ago. The authors conclude that this suggests that the two species of humans coexisted in these regions between 1,400 and 2,900 years ago. However, these results do not indicate how or if modern humans and Neanderthals interacted, they say.