Excavations in Serbia Raising New Questions About Early Humans in Europe [ Sicevo Gorge ]

Popular Archaeology ^ | Monday, November 28, 2011 | unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

The Sicevo Gorge is a rugged, picturesque river canyon cut into the Kunivica plateau in southeastern Serbia... contains a series of caves, at least one of which has yielded evidence of human presence during the shifting glacial times of the Ice Age of present-day Europe... in 2008, anthropologists uncovered a partial human mandible (lower jaw), complete with three teeth, while excavating in a small cave... a fossil specimen, definitely a human that, at least in terms of morphology, predated the Neanderthal and may have had more in common, physically, with Homo erectus, thought by many scientists to be the precursor to Neanderthals and Homo sapiens (modern humans). Initial dating indicated that the fragment was between 130,000 and 250,000 years old, but a recent series of tests conducted by Dr. Norbert Mercier at the University of Bordeaux produced a date of "older than" 113,000 years BP, significantly younger by comparison.

Still, the dating places the specimen into a time period that far precedes the advent of modern humans into present-day Europe.

But it also raises new questions about the picture of early human movement and subsistence within a geographic area that researchers suggest was a southern haven for early humans during the shifting glaciation of the Ice Age.

Says Roksandic: "The absence of Neandertal traits in a specimen of this age is counter to the common assumption that Neandertals were the only hominin group in Europe during this time period, though the fragmentary nature of the mandible precludes any definite assignment to a particular species. Given that the date is a "terminus ante quem" the mandible could be substantially older. Any new finds are bound to be extremely relevant as there is such a dearth of information on this critical area for human and animal movement into and out of Europe".

[SunkenCiv]

Cave excavations in Sicevo Gorge. Courtesy Vasa Lukich.

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

Balkan Caves, Gorges Were Pre-Neanderthal Haven
Reuters | 6-27-2008 | Ljilja Cvekic
Posted on 06/27/2008 2:45:44 PM PDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2037462/posts

[LucyT]

.

bfl

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[Thommas]

..a fossil specimen, definitely a human that, at least in terms of morphology, predated the Neanderthal and may have had more in common, physically, with Homo erectus..

This gets a wee bit confusing. While "definitely human," this specimen is something akin to Homo erectus (a non-human?) I was under the impression that only homo sapiens sapiens were "human."

Have the lines between human and non-human become so blurred?

[SunkenCiv]

Homo Sapiens Sapiens is the only modern human species — as John Anthony West amusingly put it, “smart old us with our hydrogen bombs and striped toothpaste” — but anything Homo is human, dating from about 2.4 million years ago. By contrast, Australopithecines are prehuman, despite being bipedal.

[GILTN1stborn]

Australopithecines are prehuman

ancestors of OWS specimens

[sphinx]

The species has degenerated that much in two million years?

[afraidfortherepublic]

Have the lines between human and non-human become so blurred?

Have you checked out the various OWS sites recently? s/off

[null and void]

They found islam early...

[montyspython]

From this:

To This:

[null and void]

To this:

[montyspython]

The Kosovar Albanians will claim that this is proof they were in the Balkans first, if being compared to a sub-human species, they maybe correct.

[SunkenCiv]

LOL!