Paleoanthropologists have found 1.95-million-year-old cut-marked bones that appear to have been made by early hominins using stone tools at the site of Grăunceanu in Romania. The discovery sheds new light on the timing and extent of hominin dispersal across Eurasia.
“Current evidence for the earliest appearance of hominins outside Africa comes from the site of Dmanisi, Georgia,” said Ohio University paleoanthropologist Dr. Sabrina Curran and her colleagues.
“Dated to 1.85-1.77 million years ago, the Dmanisi assemblage includes a large number of hominin remains, as well as stone tools and evidence of hominin modification of animal remains (e.g., butchery marks).”
“This site clearly demonstrates a hominin presence in Southwest Asia/Eastern Europe by the Early Pleistocene, yet the exact timing of the initial dispersal of hominins out of Africa and the long-term success of these dispersals is debated.”
“One Early Pleistocene Eurasian locality that could shed light on the initial dispersal of hominins into Eurasia is Grăunceanu, located in the Olteţ River Valley of Romania.”
The site of Grăunceanu was originally excavated in the 1960s and is one of the best known Early Pleistocene localities from East-Central Europe.
At least 31 species were identified from Grăunceanu, including mammoth, multiple species of bovids and cervids, giraffids, equids, rhinocerotids, multiple carnivore species, rodents (beaver, porcupine), ostrich, a large species of terrestrial monkey, and the youngest representative of pangolins in Europe.
The bones, which had been curated in the Emil Racoviţă Institute of Speleology and the Museum of Oltenia, were largely overlooked until recent re-examinations by Dr. Curran and co-authors.
“We didn’t initially expect to find much,” Dr. Curran explained.
“But during a routine check of the collections we found several cut-marked bones.”
“The discovery is especially notable because it predates the well-known Dmanisi…
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