Humans and Neanderthals coexisted in Asturias - ABC.es

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few months ago, researchers from the Open University and the University of Oxford adelantaban class=”c5″> went through the Iberian Peninsula thousands of years before the arrival of the modern humans, so they could not maintain contact, and if they did, the meeting had to occur in a small redoubt Biscay. Now, indeed, the same scientists have confirmed one of those special places. The latest dates made in The Güelga, a cavity in the Picos de Europa (Asturias), reveal that both species lived in the area 40,000 years ago

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The uniqueness of deposits distribution is analyzed, as scientists have detected levels of materials attributed to anatomically modern humans-with technological remnants of the Aurignacian-between layers of materials produced by Neanderthals, with instruments Musteriense and Chatelperronense. Mousterian deposits are between 55,000 and 45,000 years old, while the upper levels still remain undated.

A “sandwich” Paleolithic

“It would be a sandwich in which the bread slices would correspond to strata of materials used by Neanderthals and filling it with debris form technological layers made by modern humans,” explains Jesus F. Jorda, researcher in the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology at UNED and one of the study’s authors.

A “sandwich” that, for the researcher, would the evidence confirming the coexistence of both species in the Cantabrian area . “Modern humans occupied for a time the same cavity, before and after, was inhabited by Neanderthals groups,” summarizes the researcher.

scientists at Oxford University have used the ultrafiltration process to remove contaminating debris prior to its radiocarbon dating. The dates come from bones obtained introduced into the cave by human groups who inhabited the cavity in the Mousterian. “These are animals that have unmistakable marks of having been manipulated and consumed by humans, such as fractures and cut marks,” Jorda said.

The researcher believes that there may be other places where coexistence also occurred as the cave of El Esquilleu, Cantabria, or even Anton, in Murcia, “but those are most controversial and more research is needed to confirm it. “

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All modern humans except Africans, share with Neanderthals between 2% and 4% of our genome , which may be due to a common ancestor between the two groups, but also to maintain class=”c5″> remains whether the two species may have hybridized somewhere north of Spain. “ know that coexisted in time, but another thing is that interact with each other . We can not assure that there were a cultural exchange or sex, “says Jorda. “If we had sufficient deposits and pieces that we could see the influence of modern man-made materials Neanderthals could ensure some interaction, but now is not possible.”

As for the disappearance of Homo neanderthalensis, Jorda believes it has more to do with a lack of adaptation to the environment caused by climate change that pressure of modern humans. “Homo sapiens may have better exploited the land and resources more effectively exploited, forcing the other group to be limited to remote and isolated sites, but that would not be the only cause. What is clear is that there are no remains of massacres and killings, “he argues.

The study is published in a book edited by the Neanderthal Museum in Mettmann (Germany) in homage to its director, the renowned German archaeologist Gerd Christian Weniger. Scientists checked these data with new research.