An international team of scientists found that in the territory of southern Iberia, which is now part of modern Spain, Neanderthals lived at least 3000 years longer than their rest gather in other regions.
After more than 10 years of excavations in southern Spain, archaeologists have discovered three new objects, proving that no later than 37,000 years ago, Neanderthals were in the region. Now Anton's Cave is considered the last known place of their residence, writes Elsevier.
“Technologies from the Middle Paleolithic in Europe are associated exclusively with the Neanderthals. At three new sites, we found Neanderthal artifacts thousands of years younger than anywhere else in Western Europe. Even in neighboring areas - northern Spain and southern France - the last areas of Neanderthals are much older,”said João Zilhau of the University of Barcelona.
The Middle Paleolithic was part of the Stone Age, which lasted from 300,000 to 30,000 years ago. Scientists acknowledge that it was at this time that anatomically modern people began to migrate from Africa and, by crossing, assimilate the population of Eurasia, including Neanderthals.
New research proves that this process was not easy and turned out to be dependent on different evolutionary patterns in different geographic regions.
Previously, scientists re-examined the skull discovered in China about 40 years ago and came to the conclusion that it could call into question the theory of the origin of people from African ancestors.