An artifact-rich archaeological site in western Ukraine may be the oldest spot in Europe to contain evidence of early humans, according to a new study.
A team of researchers borrowed a technique used in geology to date the oldest portion of the site that contained artifacts, finding it was 1.4 million years old. It’s unclear which species created the artifacts, but they appear to have been made by some type of hominin, the group that includes modern humans and our direct ancestors.
The result, published [March 4] in the journal Nature, supports the idea that the first hominins migrated out of Africa and arrived in modern-day Europe from the east.
The research team thinks that the dates might be evidence that early humans — probably Homo erectus, one of our earliest relatives — traveled as far north as Korolevo when climatic conditions were favorable, during three warm interglacial periods that occurred between 1.3 million and 1.5 million years ago.
The authors think it is unlikely that any sites showing evidence of Homo erectus will be found farther north. Ice sheets reached into the Carpathian Mountains twice in the last half-million years.
