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The discovery suggests that cultures may have mixed during this time.
Tsenka Tsanova /
A handful of fossils and tools unearthed in a Bulgarian cave suggest that modern humans were present in Europe around 46,000 years ago, and that they probably interacted with Neanderthals for longer than previously thought.
According to two studies, published in Nature and Nature Ecology & Evolution this week, the discovery of the first modern human remains in Southeast Europe is the oldest evidence of Homo sapiens in the region since a time known as the early Upper Palaeolithic. Additionally, a variety of unique stone tools exhibiting both Homo sapiens and Neanderthal tool-making characteristics are present at the site, suggesting that the crops may have been mixed during this time.
The discovery, located inside the Bacho Kiro cave in Bulgaria, consisted of remains such as bones and a single tooth, as well as ornaments including a pendant made from bear teeth. The cave is already of some importance, with a history of archaeological finds of Homo sapiens discovered within its walls dating back to the 1970s.
Morphological analysis of the remains and sequencing of the resistant mitochondrial DNA and protein from the bone fragments indicate that they belonged to a group of Homo sapiens that probably lived in the cave about 42,000 to 45,000 years ago. Radiocarbon dating analysis brings that age to somewhere around 46,000 years old. Neanderthals are believed to have lived until about 40,000 years ago.
While this is highly significant in identifying the antiquity of modern humans, it is equally important to consider the importance of the ornaments present in the find and how Homo sapiens toolmaking may have been adopted by another species.
These ornaments add further evidence to the theory that Homo sapiens interbred with the last of the Neanderthals, who used similar tools and pendants, and may have influenced parts of their culture. Previous evidence has also established that the two species mated, and modern humans share some Neanderthal DNA, making scientists aware of the species overlap. The fossil finds increase the time the two likely mix and the ability to exchange memes.
And we are not talking about funny pictures of a cat here, we are talking about memes in the traditional definition first described by Richard Dawkins: cultural elements or behaviors passed from one generation to the next.
The exact chronological gap between the time Homo sapiens arrived and the decline of Neanderthals has not yet been determined, but evidence suggests that the two species probably exchanged cultural ideas, sharing memes, so to speak, for longer than the scientists. had previously hypothesized.
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