title: The oldest anatomically modern humans from far southeast Europe: direct dating, culture and behavior.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Anatomically Modern Humans (AMHs) are known to have spread across Europe during the period coinciding with the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition. Whereas their dispersal into Western Europe is relatively well established, evidence of an early settlement of Eastern Europe by modern humans are comparatively scarce.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Based on a multidisciplinary approach for the study of human and faunal remains, we describe here the oldest AMH remains from the extreme southeast Europe, in conjunction with their associated cultural and paleoecological background. We applied taxonomy, paleoecology, and taphonomy combined with geomorphology, stratigraphy, archeology and radiocarbon dating. More than 160 human bone remains have been discovered. They originate from a well documented Upper Paleolithic archeological layer (Gravettian cultural tradition) from the site of Buran-Kaya III located in Crimea (Ukraine). The combination of non-metric dental traits and the morphology of the occipital bones allow us to attribute the human remains to Anatomically Modern Humans. A set of human and faunal remains from this layer has been radiocarbon dated by Accelerator Mass Spectrometry. The direct-dating results of human bone establish a secure presence of AMHs at 31,900+240/-220 BP in this region. They are the oldest direct evidence of the presence of AMHs in a well documented archeological context. Based on taphonomical observations (cut marks and distribution of skeletal elements), they represent the oldest Upper Paleolithic modern humans from Eastern Europe, showing post-mortem treatment of the dead as well.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings are essential for the debate on the spread of modern humans in Europe during the Upper Paleolithic, as well as their cultural behaviors.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Dynamique de l'Evolution Humaine/UPR 2147, CNRS, Paris, France. sandrine.prat@evolhum.cnrs.fr
authors.forename: Sandrine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Prat
authors.forename: Stéphane C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Péan
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Crépin
authors.forename: Dorothée G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Drucker
authors.forename: Simon J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Puaud
authors.forename: Hélène
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Valladas
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lázničková-Galetová
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van der Plicht
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yanevich
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001519:Behavior; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005060:Europe; D015186:Hominidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D013058:Mass Spectrometry