title: The earliest evidence for anatomically modern humans in northwestern Europe.
abstract: The earliest anatomically modern humans in Europe are thought to have appeared around 43,000-42,000 calendar years before present (43-42 kyr cal BP), by association with Aurignacian sites and lithic assemblages assumed to have been made by modern humans rather than by Neanderthals. However, the actual physical evidence for modern humans is extremely rare, and direct dates reach no farther back than about 41-39 kyr cal BP, leaving a gap. Here we show, using stratigraphic, chronological and archaeological data, that a fragment of human maxilla from the Kent's Cavern site, UK, dates to the earlier period. The maxilla (KC4), which was excavated in 1927, was initially diagnosed as Upper Palaeolithic modern human. In 1989, it was directly radiocarbon dated by accelerator mass spectrometry to 36.4-34.7 kyr cal BP. Using a Bayesian analysis of new ultrafiltered bone collagen dates in an ordered stratigraphic sequence at the site, we show that this date is a considerable underestimate. Instead, KC4 dates to 44.2-41.5 kyr cal BP. This makes it older than any other equivalently dated modern human specimen and directly contemporary with the latest European Neanderthals, thus making its taxonomic attribution crucial. We also show that in 13 dental traits KC4 possesses modern human rather than Neanderthal characteristics; three other traits show Neanderthal affinities and a further seven are ambiguous. KC4 therefore represents the oldest known anatomically modern human fossil in northwestern Europe, fills a key gap between the earliest dated Aurignacian remains and the earliest human skeletal remains, and demonstrates the wide and rapid dispersal of early modern humans across Europe more than 40 kyr ago.
authors: Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK. thomas.higham@rlaha.ox.ac.uk
authors: Tom
authors: T
authors: Higham
authors: Tim
authors: T
authors: Compton
authors: Chris
authors: C
authors: Stringer
authors: Roger
authors: R
authors: Jacobi
authors: Beth
authors: B
authors: Shapiro
authors: Erik
authors: E
authors: Trinkaus
authors: Barry
authors: B
authors: Chandler
authors: Flora
authors: F
authors: Gröning
authors: Chris
authors: C
authors: Collins
authors: Simon
authors: S
authors: Hillson
authors: Paul
authors: P
authors: O'Higgins
authors: Charles
authors: C
authors: FitzGerald
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Fagan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D059552:Caves; D003817:Dentition; D004641:Emigration and Immigration / Q000266:history*; D005580:Fossils; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D008437:Maxilla / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D059125:Neanderthals / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D055110:Radiometric Dating; D006113:United Kingdom