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Modern humans reached the westernmost part of Europe, in what is now Portugal, 5,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a study published Monday, which is based on findings in the Picareiro limpet. The discoveries, revealed by an international team in which archaeologists from the University of the Algarve and the Autonomous University of Lisbon participate, show signs of the presence of modern man on the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula during a period of between 41 and 38 thousand years, approximately. 5000 years before what was known until now.
In an article published this week in the magazine procedures of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers conclude that the tools now found in the Picareiro limpet, in Minde, in the Alcanena municipality, Santarém district, “link this place to similar discoveries in Eurasia with the Russian plain.”
The discovery supports a rapid westward dispersal of modern humans across Eurasia within a few thousand years after their first appearance in southeastern Europe. The tools document the presence of modern humans in the westernmost part of Europe at a time when Neanderthals were thought to be present in the region. The discovery has important ramifications for understanding the possible interaction between the two groups and the eventual disappearance of Neanderthals, ”says the article’s statement.
Speaking to Lusa, the archaeologist Nuno Bicho, from the University of the Algarve, stated that the discovery shows that “the entry of our species into the south of the Iberian Peninsula is much earlier, that is, 5000 years earlier than previously thought. “. “The discovery has two levels of importance: from an absolute point of view, modern men reached the Atlantic coast much earlier than previously thought and an opportunity was created for coexistence between the two species,” said the professor of the Universidad del Algarve, who was part of the international team with João Cascalheira (also from the Universidad del Algarve) and Telmo Pereira, from the Autonomous University.
In the statement, researcher Jonathan Haws, from the University of Louisville, in the United States, points out that it is not yet known how modern humans arrived in the region, recalling that “they probably migrated through rivers from the east to the interior”, before recognizing that a coastal route is also a possibility.
Nuno Bicho highlights that the Picareiro lapa is very close to the Almonda cave, in Torres Novas, knowing that one of the places shows signs of the presence of Neanderthals and the other of modern humans, although there is no evidence of cultural relationships between both. groups. Which means that we are facing “a very complex scientific problem, which is to understand how the relationship between the two groups came about,” said the Portuguese archaeologist, estimating that the next works address this issue. “The dispersal of anatomically modern humans across Europe over many thousands of years is critical to our understanding of where we came from as a now global species.
This discovery offers significant new evidence that will help shape future research on how and when anatomically modern humans arrived in Europe and what interactions they may have had with Neanderthals, “said the director of the Archeology program at the National Science Foundation of the United States, John Yellen.
Nuno Bicho recalled that “for a long time it was thought that Neanderthals and modern men were two completely different groups, without any cultural or genealogical relationship”, knowing now that “most Europeans have a part of their genetic code that is Neanderthal “, Which means that, at some point, there was a genetic exchange between the two groups. “Until recently, I thought that the Iberian Peninsula would not be the place for this exchange,” said the researcher.
Haws points out that he has been working on Picareiro’s limpet for 25 years: “When you start to think that you have already given us all the secrets you could, a new surprise arises.” The project is led by Haws, Michael Benedetti, from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, and Lukas Friedl, from the University of Western Bohemia, in the Czech Republic, in association with Nuno Bicho, João Cascalheira and Telmo Pereira. The team also featured the work of Sahra Talamo, from the University of Bologna, in Italy, and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in Leipzig, Germany.
