Excavations in Serbia Raising New Questions About Early Humans in Europe

September 2011, Cover Stories, Daily News

Excavations in Serbia Raising New Questions About Early Humans in Europe

Sun, Nov 27, 2011

Excavations in the caves of the Sicevo Gorge in Serbia may be shedding new light on what is becoming a more complex tapestry of early human presence and migration in Ice Age Europe.

Excavations in Serbia Raising New Questions About Early Humans in Europe

The Sicevo Gorge is a rugged, picturesque river canyon cut into the Kunivica plateau in southeastern Serbia. Containing a nature park, it draws visitors for its beautiful landscape, the result of the occurrence and interaction of geological, geomorphological and hydrological phenomena. But it also contains a series of caves, at least one of which has yielded evidence of human presence during the shifting glacial times of the Ice Age of present-day Europe. The Gorge was placed on the map of popular attention when, in 2008, anthropologists uncovered a partial human mandible (lower jaw), complete with three teeth, while excavating in a small cave.

"We were looking for Neanderthals," said Dr. Mirjana Roksandic, a participating paleoanthropologist with the University of Winnepeg and a leading research team member. "But this is much better."

What they discovered was a fossil specimen, definitely a human that, at least in terms of morphology, predated the Neanderthal and may have had more in common, physically, with Homo erectus, thought by many scientists to be the precursor to Neanderthals and Homo sapiens (modern humans). Initial dating indicated that the fragment was between 130,000 and 250,000 years old, but a recent series of tests conducted by Dr. Norbert Mercier at the University of Bordeaux produced a date of "older than" 113,000 years BP, significantly younger by comparison.

Still, the dating places the specimen into a time period that far precedes the advent of modern humans into present-day Europe.

But it also raises new questions about the picture of early human movement and subsistence within a geographic area that researchers suggest was a southern haven for early humans during the shifting glaciation of the Ice Age.

Says Roksandic: "The absence of Neandertal traits in a specimen of this age is counter to the common assumption that Neandertals were the only hominin group in Europe during this time period, though the fragmentary nature of the mandible precludes any definite assignment to a particular species. Given that the date is a "terminus ante quem" the mandible could be substantially older. Any new finds are bound to be extremely relevant as there is such a dearth of information on this critical area for human and animal movement into and out of Europe".

The Balkans, which includes the Sicevo Gorge, is thought to be one of three Southern refuges for humans and other animals during the advancing and oscillating glaciations of Europe in the Pleistocene era Ice Age. The Sicevo Gorge area is unique, however, in that it was the only one which never experienced geographic isolation, and thus offers immense potential as a setting for important research on the biogeography of both early human and megafauna (animal) populations during the Pleistocene, or Paleolithic period. This includes research on the migratory routes that early humans took when emerging from their African homeland.

"When megafauna moved from Africa into Europe in the Early Pleistocene," states Roksandic, "this was the most likely corridor for their movement. The megafauna was followed by the “megafauna-chasing-hominins” – hunters or scavengers who must have used the same route in their early advancement into Europe".

The research team plans to return again to explore the caves of Sicevo in 2012, and will be running a field school through the University of Winnipeg during the summer. More information about the school can be found at http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/index/anthro-field-school-index.

A full article about the topic by Dr. Mirjana Roksandic will be published in the upcoming December issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine.

The detailed research paper about the mandible can be found at the Journal of Human Evolution, Volume 61, Issue 2, August 2011, Pages 186-196.

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