Ancient stone tools found in western Ukraine may be the oldest known evidence of early human presence in Europe, according to research published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
The chipped stones, deliberately fashioned from volcanic rock, were excavated from a quarry in Korolevo in the 1970s. Archaeologists used new methods to date the layers of sedimentary rock surrounding the tools to more than 1 million years old.
Toba Supereruption Unveils New Insights into Early Human Migration March 20, 2024
Introduction:
(Eurekalert) Modern humans dispersed from Africa multiple times, but the event that led to global expansion occurred less than 100,000 years ago. Some researchers hypothesize that dispersals were restricted to “green corridors” formed during humid intervals when food was abundant and human populations expanded in lockstep with their environments. But a new study in Nature, including ASU researchers Curtis Marean, Christopher Campisano, and Jayde Hirniak, suggests that humans also may have dispersed during arid intervals along “blue highways” created by seasonal rivers. Researchers also found evidence of cooking and stone tools that represent the oldest evidence of archery.
Working in the Horn of Africa, researchers have uncovered evidence showing how early modern humans survived in the wake of the eruption of Toba, one of the largest supervolcanoes in history, some 74,000 years ago. The behavioral flexibility of these people not only helped them live through the supereruption but may have facilitated the later dispersal of modern humans out of Africa and across the rest of the world.
“This study confirms the results from Pinnacle Point in South Africa – the eruption of Toba may have changed the environment in Africa, but people adapted and survived that eruption-caused environmental change,” said Marean, research scientist with the Institute of Human Origins and Foundation Professor with the School of Human Evolution and Social Change.
Early humans used sophisticated crafting techniques such as "wood splitting" to hunt and to clean animal hides, a new study has revealed.
Using new cutting-edge imaging techniques such as 3D microscopy and micro-CT scanning for the first time, scientists from the Lower Saxony State Office for Cultural Heritage (NLD) and the Universities of Reading and Göttingen examined the oldest complete hunting weapons known to humankind. The weapons, believed to be 300,000 years old, were found during archaeological excavations in Schöningen, Germany in 1994.
The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, identifies how pre-Homo sapiens hunters re-sharpened broken points of spears and throwing sticks. Other tools were made by splitting wood, a behavior previously thought only to be practiced by our own species, Homo sapiens. Some tools made from split wood were likely used not for hunting, but to soften and smooth animal skins.
Ancient humans hid in Saudi Arabian lava tube for over 7,000 years
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A lava tube in Saudi Arabia served as shelter to ancient humans for over 7,000 years, archaeologists have said in a new study.
While previous research established that Northern Arabia was a dynamic site of evolution and cultural development of ancient humans, the timing of their occupation and connection with the nearby Levant remained poorly understood, mainly due to poor preservation of organic remains in the arid conditions of the region.
Now, though, archaeologists are increasingly studying caves and underground settings in the region where ancient materials are sheltered from sun, wind and high fluctuations in temperature.
In the latest study, researchers assessed an archaeological site from a lava tube called Umm Jirsan located in the volcanic field of Harrat Khaybar in Saudi Arabia, about 125km north of Medina.
They found artefacts, rock art, and skeletal remains documenting repeated human occupation over the past 7,000 years at least.
