TY - JOUR
T1 - Initial Upper Palaeolithic Homo sapiens from Bacho Kiro Cave, Bulgaria
AU - Hublin, Jean Jacques
AU - Sirakov, Nikolay
AU - Aldeias, Vera
AU - Bailey, Shara
AU - Bard, Edouard
AU - Delvigne, Vincent
AU - Endarova, Elena
AU - Fagault, Yoann
AU - Fewlass, Helen
AU - Hajdinjak, Mateja
AU - Kromer, Bernd
AU - Krumov, Ivaylo
AU - Marreiros, João
AU - Martisius, Naomi L.
AU - Paskulin, Lindsey
AU - Sinet-Mathiot, Virginie
AU - Meyer, Matthias
AU - Pääbo, Svante
AU - Popov, Vasil
AU - Rezek, Zeljko
AU - Sirakova, Svoboda
AU - Skinner, Matthew M.
AU - Smith, Geoff M.
AU - Spasov, Rosen
AU - Talamo, Sahra
AU - Tuna, Thibaut
AU - Wacker, Lukas
AU - Welker, Frido
AU - Wilcke, Arndt
AU - Zahariev, Nikolay
AU - McPherron, Shannon P.
AU - Tsanova, Tsenka
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements We thank the tourism association of Bacho Kiro Cave in the town of Dryanovo, the History museum – Dryanovo, the Regional History museum in the city of Gabrovo, Dryanovo town hall and V. Lafchiiski for their assistance with the fieldwork and in the laboratory; N. Spassov from the National Museum of Natural History in Sofia for cooperating and hosting researchers of our project; H. Temming and J. Honeyford for their technical assistance and S. Nagel, B. Nickel, B. Schellbach and A. Weihmann for their help with the ancient DNA laboratory procedures and sequencing. Field operations were funded by the Max Planck Society. AixMICADAS and its operation are funded by Collège de France and the EQUIPEX ASTER-CEREGE (principal investigator, E.B.). S.T. is funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement no. 803147-951 RESOLUTION). The ancient DNA part of this study was funded by the Max Planck Society and the European Research Council (grant agreement no. 694707 to S.P.).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
PY - 2020/5/21
Y1 - 2020/5/21
N2 - The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in Europe witnessed the replacement and partial absorption of local Neanderthal populations by Homo sapiens populations of African origin1. However, this process probably varied across regions and its details remain largely unknown. In particular, the duration of chronological overlap between the two groups is much debated, as are the implications of this overlap for the nature of the biological and cultural interactions between Neanderthals and H. sapiens. Here we report the discovery and direct dating of human remains found in association with Initial Upper Palaeolithic artefacts2, from excavations at Bacho Kiro Cave (Bulgaria). Morphological analysis of a tooth and mitochondrial DNA from several hominin bone fragments, identified through proteomic screening, assign these finds to H. sapiens and link the expansion of Initial Upper Palaeolithic technologies with the spread of H. sapiens into the mid-latitudes of Eurasia before 45 thousand years ago3. The excavations yielded a wealth of bone artefacts, including pendants manufactured from cave bear teeth that are reminiscent of those later produced by the last Neanderthals of western Europe4–6. These finds are consistent with models based on the arrival of multiple waves of H. sapiens into Europe coming into contact with declining Neanderthal populations7,8.
AB - The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in Europe witnessed the replacement and partial absorption of local Neanderthal populations by Homo sapiens populations of African origin1. However, this process probably varied across regions and its details remain largely unknown. In particular, the duration of chronological overlap between the two groups is much debated, as are the implications of this overlap for the nature of the biological and cultural interactions between Neanderthals and H. sapiens. Here we report the discovery and direct dating of human remains found in association with Initial Upper Palaeolithic artefacts2, from excavations at Bacho Kiro Cave (Bulgaria). Morphological analysis of a tooth and mitochondrial DNA from several hominin bone fragments, identified through proteomic screening, assign these finds to H. sapiens and link the expansion of Initial Upper Palaeolithic technologies with the spread of H. sapiens into the mid-latitudes of Eurasia before 45 thousand years ago3. The excavations yielded a wealth of bone artefacts, including pendants manufactured from cave bear teeth that are reminiscent of those later produced by the last Neanderthals of western Europe4–6. These finds are consistent with models based on the arrival of multiple waves of H. sapiens into Europe coming into contact with declining Neanderthal populations7,8.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41586-020-2259-z
DO - 10.1038/s41586-020-2259-z
M3 - Article
C2 - 32433609
AN - SCOPUS:85084515477
VL - 581
SP - 299
EP - 302
JO - Nature Cell Biology
JF - Nature Cell Biology
SN - 1465-7392
IS - 7808
ER -