New analysis of remains found in a Belgium cave revealed that Neanderthals disappeared from Europe thousands of years earlier than previously thought. Bones found in Spy Cave were believed to have belonged to some of the last surviving members of the Neanderthal species to have inhabited Europe.
Previous analysis of the remains estimated that the individual lived around 24,000 years ago, but new studies conducted by a team of experts from Belgium, Britain, and Germany have revealed that they were instead from between 44,200 and 40,600 years ago. This means that Neanderthals vanished from Europe thousands of years earlier.
Furthermore, they dated two other remains found at two other locations in Belgium (Fonds-de-Foret and Engis) and they found that they were very close in age. Gregory Abrams, who is from the Scladina Cave Archaeological Centre in Belgium and the co-lead author of the study, explained this further, “Dating all these Belgian specimens was very exciting as they play
Neanderthal fossils from a cave in Belgium believed to belong to the last survivors of their species ever discovered in Europe are thousands of years older than once thought, a new study said on Monday.
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New Tech Provided Better European Neanderthal Dating Results
“Dating is crucial in archaeology,” explained Tom Higham , a University of Oxford archaeologist and study participant affiliated with the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, where the new tests were performed.
“Without a reliable framework of chronology we can’t really be confident in understanding the relationships between Neanderthals and
as we moved into Europe 45,000 years ago and they began to disappear. That’s why these methods are so exciting, because they provide much more accurate and reliable dates.” Tom Higham
In search of confirmatory evidence, the archaeologists applied the new dating techniques to European Neanderthalspecimens found in two other caves in Belgium, Engis and Fonds-de-Forêt. The radiocarbon accelerator produced similar results for these remains, locating them within the same 42,200 38,600 BC time frame that had been assigned to the Spy Cave specimens.
Der Abschied des Neandertalers heise.de - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from heise.de Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.