Oldest Human Fossil in Western Europe Found in Spain

Popular Archaeology ^ | Sat, Aug 03, 2013 | Journal of Human Evolution

[SunkenCiv]

The find, a fossil tooth (molar) uncovered through excavations at the site of Barranco León in the Orce region of southeastern Spain, was dated to about 1.4 million years ago using several combined dating techniques, including Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) in combination with paleomagnetic and biochronological data...

Researchers identified the lithic assemblage as characteristic of Oldowan technology, the earliest known stone tool industry, first discovered at Olduvai Gorge in East Africa by Louis Leakey in the 1930s. The same industry was found at Dmanisi in the country of Georgia, where early human fossils dated to about 1.8 million years ago were discovered...

The animal remains consisted of both large mammals, such as hippopotamus and bison, as well as small mammals. The large mammal remains, they conclude, showed evidence of anthropic activity, the bones showing fractures, impact points, and flake scars, along with a scattering of bone flakes.

Thus, given the fossil tooth and its dating and the behavioral markers indicated by the stone tools and the associated mammal remains, Isidro-Moyano and colleagues conclude that the find "represents the oldest anatomical evidence of human presence in Western Europe. This finding, combined with the important lithic tool assemblage from the level D of Barranco León, confirms that Western Europe was colonized soon after the first expansion out of Africa, currently documented at the Dmanisi site."

[fish hawk]

I’d like that too but alas, it is what it is. Life goes on.

[Grimmy]

Nicely polite way to say “look it up your own damned self!” lol.

Thanks for the links. Sorry about the laziness.

[colorado tanker]

Well, I wouldn’t exactly say human. Ancestor, maybe.