Ancient Human Signs Discovered In A European Cave Dating Back 500,000 Years

Stone tools from the Paleolithic era were discovered in a Polish cave fifty years ago. These implements were the oldest ones ever found in this region, according to the findings of a recent study.

The tools discovered in Maopolska's Tunel Wielki cave date back between 4.5 million and 5.5 million years.

Scientists anticipate that the dating will help them understand more about the individuals who made these items, as well as where and how they lived.

According to a report published in Science Alert, the tools were made by the extinct human species Homo heidelbergensis, usually considered the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans (us). And it means the region was inhabited by humans at a time when Central Europe's harsh climate would have required significant physical and cultural adjustment.

"This is an extremely interesting aspect of analyses for us," archaeologist Malgorzata Kot of the University of Warsaw in Poland explained to Science in Poland back in October 2022 when the research was released.

"We can examine the limits of the possibilities of survival of Homo heidelbergensis and thus observe how he adapted to these adverse conditions."

In the 1960s, archaeologists excavated the Tunel Wielki cave in Poland's Ojcow National Park. Material layers have been dated to the Middle Paleolithic, which dates back as far as 40,000 years ago, and the Holocene, which began about 11,700 years ago.

In the study, the researchers expressed their hope that they will someday be able to discover bones of Homo heidelbergensis in Cave Tunel Wielki. This would be Poland's earliest known human remains. The oldest Neanderthal remains ever discovered date back at least 50,000 years.