Early modern human settlement of Europe north of the Alps occurred 43,500 years ago in a cold steppe-type environment

Abstract

The first settlement of Europe by modern humans is thought to have occurred between 50,000 and 40,000 calendar years ago (cal B.P.). In Europe, modern human remains of this time period are scarce and often are not associated with archaeology or originate from old excavations with no contextual information. Hence, the behavior of the first modern humans in Europe is still unknown. Aurignacian assemblages--demonstrably made by modern humans--are commonly used as proxies for the presence of fully behaviorally and anatomically modern humans. The site of Willendorf II (Austria) is well known for its Early Upper Paleolithic horizons, which are among the oldest in Europe. However, their age and attribution to the Aurignacian remain an issue of debate. Here, we show that archaeological horizon 3 (AH 3) consists of faunal remains and Early Aurignacian lithic artifacts. By using stratigraphic, paleoenvironmental, and chronological data, AH 3 is ascribed to the onset of Greenland Interstadial 11, around 43,500 cal B.P., and thus is older than any other Aurignacian assemblage. Furthermore, the AH 3 assemblage overlaps with the latest directly radiocarbon-dated Neanderthal remains, suggesting that Neanderthal and modern human presence overlapped in Europe for some millennia, possibly at rather close geographical range. Most importantly, for the first time to our knowledge, we have a high-resolution environmental context for an Early Aurignacian site in Central Europe, demonstrating an early appearance of behaviorally modern humans in a medium-cold steppe-type environment with some boreal trees along valleys around 43,500 cal B.P.

Fig. 1.

Stratigraphic column of the Willendorf II sequence showing the position of AH 3–9 pedological features (A1, humic horizon; Bw, incipient B horizon; TGl, tundra gley), stratigraphic position of radiocarbon dates obtained on charcoal [shown in thousands of years (ka) B.P.; SI Appendix, Table S1], paleoenvironmental reconstruction (PS, periglacial steppe; CS, cold steppe; CS[B], medium-cold steppe with some boreal trees along valleys; B, boreal), and the interstadials (brown font) documented at Willendorf II. Radiocarbon ages were calibrated using the IntCal13 calibration curve (26) and OxCal 4.2.3 software (27). Asterisks (*) mark out-of-range dates. The key to the graphic symbols is given in SI Appendix, Fig. S20.

Fig. 2.

Lithic artifacts of AH 3 at Willendorf II. (A) Bladelet WII-L20-2492. (B) Bladelet fragment WII-M20-640. (C) Bladelet fragment WII-M20-647. (D) Core tablet WII-M18-25. (E) Refitted lithic artifacts of the new collection (yellow outline; WII-M18-25, WII-M20-623, WII-M20-647) and the old collection (no outline). (Scale bars: 10.00 mm in all images.) Images A–D were created from 3D models of the lithics (SI Appendix, SI Text). The key to graphic symbols is given in SI Appendix, Fig. S21.

Fig. 3.

Correlation of the lower part of the Willendorf II sequence and the Greenland ice-core climatic data showing the chronostratigraphic position of AH 3 at the onset of GIS 11. Shown are the lithostratigraphy, the position of AH 3 and AH 3ab, malacological data (numbers right of the bars are sample IDs in SI Appendix, Tables S5 and S6), paleoenvironment (PS, periglacial steppe; CS, cold steppe; CS[B], medium-cold steppe with some boreal trees along valleys; B, boreal), radiocarbon dates [in uncalibrated (uncal) ka B.P.; grouped by radiocarbon laboratory and sample pretreatment; GrA, Groningen radiocarbon laboratory; OxA, Oxford radiocarbon laboratory; cross-dating: radiocarbon dates on the same, homogenized sample (33)], interstadials defined at Willendorf II, correlation with the GRIP ss09sea data (H5, Heinrich event 5), and calibrated radiocarbon ages (in ka cal B.P.; SI Appendix, Table S1) for the samples with ABOx-SC pretreatment. Radiocarbon ages were calibrated using the IntCal13 calibration curve (26) and OxCal 4.2.3 software (27). The key to the graphic symbols is given in SI Appendix, Fig. S20.