Cro-Magnon

European early modern humans (EEMH) in the context of the Upper Paleolithic in Europe refers to the early presence of anatomically modern humans in Europe. The term 'early modern' is usually taken to include fossils of the Ahmarian, Bohunician, Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian, extending throughout the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), covering the period of roughly 48,000 to 15,000 years ago, usually referred to as the Cro-Magnon. The earliest sites in Europe dated 48,000 years ago are Riparo Mochi (Italy), Geissenklösterle (Germany), and Isturitz (France). The upper limit of 15,000 marks the transition to the European Mesolithic, depending on the region also given in the range of 12,000 to 10,000 years ago.Peștera cu Oase ('Bones Cave') near the Iron Gates in Romania appears to be a cave bear den; the human remains may have been prey or carrion. No tools are associated with the finds. Oase 1 holotype is a robust mandible which combines a variety of archaic, derived early modern, and possibly Neanderthal features. The modern attributes place it close to EEMH among Late Pleistocene samples. The fossil is one of the few finds in Europe which could be directly dated and is at least 37,800 years old. Oase 2 (and fragments Oase 3), discovered in 2005, is the skull of a young male, again with mosaic features, some of which are paralleled in the Oase 1 mandible.The Peștera Muierilor ('Women's Cave') find is a single, fairly complete cranium of a woman with rugged facial traits and otherwise modern skull features, found in a lower gallery of the cave, among numerous cave bear remains. Radiocarbon dating yielded an age of 30,150 ± 800 years. No associated tools were found.The original Cro-Magnon find was discovered in a rock shelter at Les Eyzies, Dordogne, France. The type specimen from the site is Cro-Magnon 1, a male, carbon dated to about 28,000 14C years old. (27,680 ± 270 BP). Compared to Neanderthals, the skeletons showed the same high forehead, upright posture and slender (gracile) skeleton as modern humans. The other specimens from the site are a female, Cro-Magnon 2, and another male, Cro-Magnon 3. The condition and placement of the remains of Cro-Magnon 1, along with pieces of shell and animal teeth in what appear to have been pendants or necklaces, raises the question of whether they were buried intentionally. If Cro-Magnons buried their dead intentionally, it suggests they had a knowledge of ritual, by burying their dead with necklaces and tools, or an idea of disease and that the bodies needed to be contained. Analysis of the pathology of the skeletons shows that the humans of this period led a physically difficult life. In addition to infection, several of the individuals found at the shelter had fused vertebrae in their necks, indicating traumatic injury; the adult female found at the shelter had survived for some time with a skull fracture. As these injuries would be life-threatening even today, this suggests that Cro-Magnons relied on community support and took care of each other's injuries. The Abri of Cro-Magnon is part of the UNESCO World Heritage of the 'Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley'.The Předmostí site is dated to between 24,000 and 27,000 years old. The people were essentially similar to the French Cro-Magnon finds. Though undoubtedly modern, they had robust features indicative of a big-game hunter lifestyle. They also share square eye socket openings found in the French material.The Venus figurines of Balzi Rossi have been dated to the later Gravettian or Epi-Gravettian, 24 to 19 ka.The Abri Pataud shelter shows human habitation throughout the Aurignacian to Solutrean, but was abandoned in the early Magdalenian, about 17 ka. The 'Pataud woman' is the name given to the remains of a young woman, about 20 years old, deposited with the body of a newborn child, and is about 21,000 years old. The woman's skull was buried separately, about four meters from the body, lying protected between stones.Chancelade man, a short and stocky older man buried in Chancelade, France, was found with Magdalenian tools. Several other more fragmentary finds, like the skeleton from Laugerie-Basse and the Duruthy cave near Sorde-l'Abbaye has traditionally been linked to the Chancelade man.The morphological difference in the Chancelade skull compared to the 'stockier' Cro-Magnon type has been taken as evidence for a Gravettian or Magdalenian-erainflux of a different population unrelated to the Aurignacian EEMH.Villabruna 1 is a skeleton, dated 14.1–13.8 ka, buried in a shallow pit, the head turned to the left with arms stretched touching the body, with grave goods typical of hunter-gatherer equipment. Villabruna 1 is the oldest bearer of Y-haplogroup R1b found in Europe, and has been taken as a representative of the beginning post-LGM (Mesolithic) migration movement from the Near East. European early modern humans (EEMH) in the context of the Upper Paleolithic in Europe refers to the early presence of anatomically modern humans in Europe. The term 'early modern' is usually taken to include fossils of the Ahmarian, Bohunician, Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian, extending throughout the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), covering the period of roughly 48,000 to 15,000 years ago, usually referred to as the Cro-Magnon. The earliest sites in Europe dated 48,000 years ago are Riparo Mochi (Italy), Geissenklösterle (Germany), and Isturitz (France). The upper limit of 15,000 marks the transition to the European Mesolithic, depending on the region also given in the range of 12,000 to 10,000 years ago. Use of 'Cro-Magnon' is mostly to times after the beginning of the Aurignacian proper, c. 37 to 35 ka. Genetically, EEMH form an isolated population between 37 and 14 ka, with significant Mesolithic admixture from the Near East and Caucasus beginning around 14 ka. The description as 'modern' is used as contrasting with the 'archaic' Neanderthals who lived within Europe from 400,000 to 37,000 years ago. The term EEMH is equivalent to Cro-Magnon Man, or Cro-Magnons, a term derived from the Cro-Magnon rock shelter in southwestern France, where the first EEMH were found in 1868. Louis Lartet (1869) proposed Homo sapiens fossilis as the systematic name for 'Cro-Magnon Man'. W.K. Gregory (1921) proposed the subspecies name Homo sapiens cro-magnonensis. In literature published since the late 1990s, the term EEMH is generally preferred over the common name Cro-Magnon, which has no formal taxonomic status, as it refers neither to a species or subspecies nor to an archaeological phase or culture. Another known remains of EEMH can be dated to before 40,000 years ago (40 ka) with some certainty: those from Grotta del Cavallo in Italy, and from Kents Cavern in England, have been radiocarbon dated to 45–41 ka. A number of other early fossils are dated close to or just after 40ka, including fossils found in Romania (Peștera cu Oase, 42–37 ka) and Russia (Kostenki-14, 40–35 ka). The Siberian Ust'-Ishim man, dated to 45 ka, was not geographically found in Europe, and indeed is not part of the 'Western Eurasian' genetic lineage, but intermediate between the Western Eurasian and East Asian lineages. The EEMH lineage in the European Mesolithic is also known as 'West European Hunter-Gatherer' (WHG). These mesolithic hunter-gatherers emerge after the end of the LGM ca. 15 ka and are described as more gracile than the Upper Paleolithic Cro-Magnons. The WHG lineage survives in contemporary Europeans, albeit only as a minor contribution overwhelmed by the later Neolithic and Bronze Age migrations. While anatomically modern humans (AMH) may have been present in West Asia since before 250 ka, modern non-Africans mainly descend from the main successful out of Africa expansion at around 65 ka. This movement was an offshoot of the rapid expansion within East Africa associated with mtDNA haplogroup L3. EEMH are associated with mtDNA haplogroup N, also widespread in Central Asia, and with Y-chromosomal haplogroup IJK. AMH are estimated to have marginally interbred with Neanderthals during about 65 to 47 ka, most likely in West Asia. It is this basal West Eurasian lineage that began to move into Europe beginning about 45 ka. Neanderthals became extinct shortly after this time, presumably being outcompeted or actively killed by the advancing EEMH. Admixture with Neanderthals appears to cease almost entirely after 45 ka, in spite of several millennia of continued co-existence of AMH and Neanderthals in Europe. There are two main hypotheses as to the route taken by the earliest AMH entering Europe, following the Danubian corridor or the Mediterranean coast along the Balkans. Support for either hypothesis relies on accurate dating of the earliest known fossils in the region. High-precision dating of the earliest Proto-Aurignacian sites in Europe, Riparo Mochi (Italy), Geissenklösterle (Germany), and Isturitz (France), have yielded dates of close to 42 ka, indicating that EEMH spread throughout Western Europe very rapidly. EEMH sites in Europe earlier than 37 ka are also termed Proto-Aurignacian. The Aurignacian proper, the stage associated with the original Cro-Magnon find, appears to have developed within Europe. It lasts from 37 ka until about 28 ka.