https://www.science.org/content/article/stone-tools-ukraine-were-left-europe-s-first-known-humans
Stone tools in Ukraine were left by
Europe’s first known humans
Primitive tools help trace the paths
of Homo erectus out of Africa

Geologic ages ago in what is now Ukraine,
a pack of human ancestors approached a
crook in the Carpathian Mountains, which
held hard but brittle glassy rocks—just
right to break into tools with sharp
edges. Bashing one rock against another,
the humans shaped the stones into simple
cutters and scrapers, as their own
ancestors had done before them in Africa.

More than 1 million years later,
archaeologists uncovered their cache and
dated cobbles found with the tools and
other stone artifacts. In a paper out today
in Nature, they conclude that early humans
may have settled in Europe some 1.4 million
years ago, about 200,000 to 300,000 years
earlier than previously thought based on
fossils. If the results withstand scrutiny,
they will further illuminate the timing and
pathways of our ancient relatives’ forays
out of Africa.

“This is an excellent contribution,” that
helps solidify the “notion that there have
been excursions out of Africa repeatedly
throughout the Pleistocene,” says University
of Winnipeg biological anthropologist Mirjana
Roksandic. “I’m fascinated by the amount of
movement that we can actually find.”
....
Collaborating with Ukrainian archaeologists
and other international geochronologists,
Garba selected seven of the quartz-rich
cobbles of 1 kilogram or less. He found that
the cobbles—and therefore the tools—had been
buried sometime between 1.5 million and 1.3
million years ago. At 48.2° latitude, this
would be H. erectus’ northernmost known
sojourn.

For migrations from Africa into Europe,
“coming from Eastern Europe [is] the more
logical route,” Roksandic says. Yet the
global scientific community has often
overlooked the importance of Eastern
Europe as a path into the continent, she
says.
....

Note - Korolevo is in the western part
of Ukraine close to intersections of the
borders with Hungary and Romania.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07151-3
East-to-west human dispersal into Europe 1.4
million years ago

Abstract
Stone tools stratified in alluvium and
loess at Korolevo, western Ukraine, have
been studied by several research groups
since the discovery of the site in the
1970s. Although Korolevo’s importance to
the European Palaeolithic is widely
acknowledged, age constraints on the
lowermost lithic artefacts have yet to be
determined conclusively. Here, using two
methods of burial dating with cosmogenic
nuclides, we report ages of 1.42 ± 0.10
million years and 1.42 ± 0.28 million years
for the sedimentary unit that contains
Mode-1-type lithic artefacts. Korolevo
represents, to our knowledge, the earliest
securely dated hominin presence in Europe,
and bridges the spatial and temporal gap
between the Caucasus (around 1.85–1.78
 million years ago) and southwestern Europe
(around 1.2–1.1 million years ago). Our
findings advance the hypothesis that Europe
was colonized from the east, and our
analysis of habitat suitability suggests
that early hominins exploited warm
interglacial periods to disperse into
higher latitudes and relatively continental
sites—such as Korolevo—well before the
Middle Pleistocene Transition.

On 3/11/24 1:07 AM, Primum Sapienti wrote:

> More than 1 million years later,
> archaeologists uncovered their cache and
> dated cobbles found with the tools and
> other stone artifacts. In a paper out today
> in Nature, they conclude that early humans
> may have settled in Europe some 1.4 million
> years ago, about 200,000 to 300,000 years
> earlier than previously thought based on
> fossils.

And more than 600,000 thousand years before
that they were already in China, leaving
behind tools.

So human ancestors were already leaving
behind tools in Asia back when Sediba was
falling into caves, and a juvenile
Paranthropus was dying in South Africa just
so an undergraduate could later decide that
it shared "Affinities with" erectus...

No, things aren't quite as clear cut as you
misrepresent.

--
http://jtem.tumblr.com

JTEM wrote:
> On 3/11/24 1:07 AM, Primum Sapienti wrote:
>
>> More than 1 million years later,
>> archaeologists uncovered their cache and
>> dated cobbles found with the tools and
>> other stone artifacts. In a paper out today
>> in Nature, they conclude that early humans
>> may have settled in Europe some 1.4 million
>> years ago, about 200,000 to 300,000 years
>> earlier than previously thought based on
>> fossils.
>
> And more than 600,000 thousand years before
> that they were already in China, leaving
> behind tools.
>
> So human ancestors were already leaving
> behind tools in Asia back when Sediba was
> falling into caves, and a juvenile
> Paranthropus was dying in South Africa just
> so an undergraduate could later decide that
> it shared "Affinities with" erectus...
>
> No, things aren't quite as clear cut as you
> misrepresent.

They're talking about EUROPE, not CHINA. Figure one
in the paper shows dispersal routes north through
Turkey and the Caucasus then west into EUROPE or
into Turkey then west into what's now Bulgaria
and Greece (which are part of EUROPE).

Primum Sapienti wrote:

> They're talking about EUROPE, not CHINA.

Exactly. Guess which one is FURTHER AWAY FROM
Africa? So if Out of Africa purity is correct,
they shouldn't appear much further from Africa
at least 600,000 years before they show up
closer to Africa. Your model is wrong. Period.

> Figure one
> in the paper shows dispersal routes north through
> Turkey and the Caucasus then west into EUROPE or
> into Turkey then west into what's now Bulgaria
> and Greece (which are part of EUROPE).

All CLOSER TO Africa than is China. See above.

--
http://jtem.tumblr.com