An international team of paleoanthropologists and archaeologists from the Universities of Vienna, Oxford, Tübingen, the Senckenberg Research Institution (Frankfurt am Main) and other institutions, used Virtual Anthropology methodology to analyse two fossil teeth from Grotta del Cavallo, southern Italy. Originally considered Neanderthal, these remains are now conclusively identified as anatomically modern humans, the direct ancestors of modern people. New radiocarbon dating of the site further shows that the Cavallo teeth are the oldest modern Europeans known to date, indicating an earlier dispersal of modern humans into the European continent than previously thought.
Grotta del Cavallo, a prehistoric cave site in Apulia discovered in 1960, contains remains of the Uluzzian culture, characterized by personal ornaments, bone tools and pigments, Such artifacts are usually associated with modern humans. Two milk teeth found at the site in 1964 by Prof. Palma di Cesola (University of Sienna) were originally identified as Neanderthal. This attribution has led to intense discussion over the cognitive abilities of Neanderthals and their possible independent development of symbolic behaviour similar to that of early modern humans.
Dr. Stefano Benazzi (University of Vienna) and the international team of researchers studied three-dimensional digital models of the teeth from Grotta del Cavallo derived from Computer Tomography (CT) scans. They compared these to CT scans from a large sample of modern human and Neanderthal teeth. Two independent methods were used to compare both the internal and external features of the teeth, including the thickness of the enamel and the general outline of the crown. The results conclusively show that the Cavallo remains are not Neanderthal, but instead belonged to modern human children.
“Our analysis clearly shows that the dental remains from Grotta del Cavallo belonged to modern humans, and therefore that the Uluzzian culture was produced by modern humans and not Neanderthals. This study also underscores the crucial role that medical imaging and Virtual Anthropology can play in the identification and interpretation of fossil remains” says Prof. Katerina Harvati (Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoecology at the University of Tübingen), whose Computer Tomography Laboratory undertook a large amount of the comparative research. Dr. Ottmar Kullmer (Senckenberg Research Institution, Frankfurt) adds: “Fossil human remains from the time of these ‘transitional’ cultures are extremely rare, and comparative analyses until recently did not focus on deciduous teeth.”
New radiocarbon dating analysis, carried out by Dr. Katerina Douka (Oxford Radiocarbon Accel-erator Unit, Oxford University), dated marine shells found in the same archaeological levels as the human teeth. Results show that these layers date to between ~43,000-45,000 years ago. This dating shows that the Cavallo remains are the oldest modern human remains known to date from Europe.
Kullmer says, “Modern Homo sapiens appears to have dispersed into Europe, a continent already occupied by Neanderthals, already before the beginning of the Aurignacian.”
Harvati adds, “Our findings suggest an early modern human dispersal along the European Mediterranean coast, and underline the importance of Southern Europe in the dispersal of early humans into Europe.”
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Source: University of Tübingen
