Humans first arrived in Europe 1.3 million years ago, migrating out of Africa

A new study led by Lluís Gibert at the University of Barcelona has re-dated human remains found at the Orce sites in Spain, making them the oldest in Europe at around 1.3 million years. 

This supports the hypothesis that early humans arrived in Europe through the Strait of Gibraltar rather than the Mediterranean route via Asia. 

First arrival of humans in Europe 

“After a century of research, the chronology of the first arrival of hominins in Europe remains controversial. Four Spanish localities potentially record evidence of the oldest Europeans, yet arrival ages remain loosely constrained between 1.6 and 0.9 Ma,” wrote the researchers.

“Here we provide a new Early Pleistocene magnetostratigraphy, recording four paleomagnetic boundaries within 80 m of a fluvio-lacustrine sedimentary succession in Orce, southeastern Spain.”

“This Pleistocene succession incorporates for the first time in Europe five superposed paleontological localities between the Olduvai and Jaramillo magnetozones, including three hominin sites providing evidence of the presence of hominins older than 1.07 Ma in Europe.”

Dating in a previously unsampled area 

The new dating was achieved by analyzing the paleomagnetism of a previously unsampled area protected from erosion, resulting in a precise chronology with minimal error. 

This places the Venta Micena site at 1.32 million years ago (Ma), Barranco León at 1.28 Ma, and Fuente Nueva 3 at 1.23 Ma, surpassing the age of the Sima del Elefante site in Atapuerca.

The dating utilized paleomagnetism, which studies the inversion of the Earth’s magnetic poles recorded in minerals. This technique provided precise data due to the long sedimentary sequence in Orce. 

Magnetic polarity sequence 

“The uniqueness of these sites is that they are stratified and within a very long sedimentary sequence, more than eighty meters long,” Gibert explained. 

The researchers identified a magnetic polarity sequence with five events, placing the Orce sites between 1.77 and 1.07 million years ago.

“Having identified a detailed, extended magnetostratigraphy encompassing the fossil sites, we then estimated their age by stratigraphic interpolation,” explained the researchers.

“A Bayesian age-stratigraphic model was employed and formulated with the prior condition that strata monotonically decrease in age upward.” 

To corroborate the dating, the team analyzed the fauna at Orce, comparing it to other Early Pleistocene sites in Europe. 

Humans entered Europe via the Strait of Gibraltar

Robert Martin conducted a detailed analysis of micromammals and large mammals, finding that the fauna at Orce was more rudimentary than that at Atapuerca’s Sima del Elefante site. The absence of Asian pig ancestors at Orce also supports its greater antiquity.

This dating aligns with other evidence suggesting early humans entered Europe via the Strait of Gibraltar. The presence of African fauna and similar lithic industries in southern Spain strengthens this hypothesis. 

“We also defend the hypothesis that they arrived from Gibraltar because no older evidence has been found at any other site along the alternative route,” Gibert said.

Humans arrived long after leaving Africa 

The researchers note a “diachronism” between the oldest human occupation in Asia (1.8 Ma) and Europe (1.3 Ma), indicating that early humans arrived in southwestern Europe long after leaving Africa. 

“These differences in human expansion can be explained by the fact that Europe is isolated from Asia and Africa by biogeographical barriers that are difficult to overcome,” Gibert explained. 

Moreover, while the current distance across Gibraltar is 14 kilometers, it may have been shorter in the past due to tectonic activity and sea level fluctuations.

Since excavations began in 1982, five human remains have been found at Orce, including fragments of a humerus and parts of a cranium. 

Controversy surrounded these findings until independent studies confirmed their human origin. The discovery of human molar teeth and Olduvayan lithic tools at nearby sites further solidified evidence of early human presence in Orce.

The study, published in the journal Earth Science Reviews, highlights the importance of the Orce sites in understanding early human migration to Europe. 

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