Stone tools found at an archaeological site in Ukraine are 1.4 million years old, the oldest evidence of human presence in Europe, according to a new study.
The discovery also supports the hypothesis that our early human ancestors in Europe first migrated to Europe from the east or southeast.
Early humans, the group that includes modern humans and our closest ancestors such as the Neanderthals, are thought to have arrived in the Eurasian region between 10 and 2 million years ago, but the exact timing of their arrival in Europe remains uncertain. It is still difficult to find out information about
While modern humans emerged from Africa about 270,000 years ago, it is not known when our human ancestors entered Europe.
Researchers say that the main reason for this is the lack of discovery of archaeological sites of this period.
One such rare site, where major excavations have been carried out, is the Korolev region in western Ukraine, where Stone Age tools were discovered in the 1970s.
In the 70s, researchers excavated broken rocks from the site that were molded from volcanic rocks.
Now scientists have used new methods to date the layers of rock surrounding the tools, which are about 1.4 million years old.
“This is the oldest evidence of any human in Europe,” study co-author Mads Faurshoe Knudsen, a researcher at Aarhus University in Denmark, told The Associated Press.
However, it is still uncertain which of our early human ancestors likely made these tools.
Researchers suspect that it may have been Homo erectus that was the first human race to walk upright and master the use of fire.
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Roman Garba, lead author of the study, said in a statement: ‘Our earliest ancestors, Homo erectus, were the first early humans to leave Africa and move into the Middle East, East Asia and Europe around 2 million years ago.’
According to him: ‘Based on climate models and field pollen data, we identify three possible warm glacial periods when the first early humans could have reached Korolev through the migration corridor of the Danube River. ‘
Analyzing how the location of Korolev may have changed over two million years as their habitat, scientists say our early human ancestors likely took advantage of Earth’s warmer periods known as interglacials. to make these high latitudes habitable.
Due to its proximity to NATO countries Romania and Hungary, the Korolev site has so far been spared the invasion and destruction of Ukraine by Russian forces.
Dr Garba told the Spanish daily El Pais that not a single bomb has been dropped here since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war.
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