An early modern human from the Peştera cu Oase, Romania

Abstract

The 2002 discovery of a robust modern human mandible in the Peştera cu Oase, southwestern Romania, provides evidence of early modern humans in the lower Danubian Corridor. Directly accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon ( 14 C)-dated to 34,000 -36,000 14 C years B.P., the Oase 1 mandible is the oldest definite early modern human specimen in Europe and provides perspectives on the emergence and evolution of early modern humans in the northwestern Old World. The moderately long Oase 1 mandible exhibits a prominent tuber symphyseos and overall proportions that place it close to earlier Upper Paleolithic European specimens. Its symmetrical mandibular incisure, medially placed condyle, small superior medial pterygoid tubercle, mesial mental foramen, and narrow corpus place it closer to early modern humans among Late Pleistocene humans. However, its cross-sectional symphyseal orientation is intermediate between late archaic and early modern humans, the ramus is exceptionally wide, and the molars become progressively larger distally with exceptionally large third molars. The molar crowns lack derived Neandertal features but are otherwise morphologically undiagnostic. However, it has unilateral mandibular foramen lingular bridging, an apparently derived Neandertal feature. It therefore presents a mosaic of archaic, early modern human and possibly Neandertal morphological features, emphasizing both the complex population dynamics of modern human dispersal into Europe and the subsequent morphological evolution of European early modern humans.

Isotopic evidence for the diets of European Neanderthals and early modern humans

“…Table S2) . The Oase 1 modern human is the oldest directly dated modern human in Europe [Ϸ40,000 cal BP (42)] and the only one in our study that overlaps in time with Neanderthals. The other early modern humans from the Early-to Mid-Upper Paleolithic with isotopic values date to between Ϸ34,000 and Ϸ27,000 cal BP and are (or are likely to be) associated with late Aurignacian or especially Gravettian technology.…”

Early modern humans from the Peştera Muierii, Baia de Fier, Romania

“…This focus has concerned the chronological reassessment of these human remains, particularly through direct radiocarbon dating of human specimens. The results have assigned a number of specimens previously included in this sample to later periods of the Late Pleistocene or to the Holocene (6), but they have also secured the early ages for several key samples (2,7,8). These analyses, along with functional analyses of late Neandertals and the earliest European modern human remains (9,10), have raised questions regarding the social, subsistence, and reproductive behavioral dynamics of Upper Paleolithic early modern humans as they dispersed westward across Europe, encountering indigenous Neandertal populations, eventually absorbing and͞or replacing them by Ϸ30 ka 14 C BP (Ϸ35 ka cal BP).…”

“…This focus has involved the paleontological reassessment of morphologically modern humans before Ϸ28,000 radiocarbon years before present (Ϸ28 ka 14 C BP) (Ϸ32.5 ka cal BP), with accumulating evidence that they present a variable mosaic of derived modern human, archaic human, and Neandertal features (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6). This focus has concerned the chronological reassessment of these human remains, particularly through direct radiocarbon dating of human specimens.…”

Revised direct radiocarbon dating of the Vindija G 1 Upper Paleolithic Neandertals

“…Beginning in the 1990s, several early modern humans have been directly dated to Ͼ28,000 B.P. (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9). In addition, a suite of purportedly pre-28,000 B.P.…”

“…; only the French early modern human remains from Brassempouy, La Quina, and Les Rois are securely associated with Aurignacian assemblages, and they are all Ͻ34,000 14 C years old (27,28). The Romanian Peştera cu Oase modern humans, dated to Ϸ35,000 B.P., are dated earlier, but they have no archeological association (7,29). As a consequence, what was once perceived as a smooth transition of culturally Aurignacian early modern humans replacing Middle Paleolithic and initial Upper Paleolithic Neandertals across Europe has become more complex and ambiguous.…”