Modern humans enter Europe and the Aurignacian begins
- Date
- c. 45,000 years ago
- Category
- Exploration & colonisation
- Region
- Europe (Balkans and Danube basin)
- Era
- Prehistory
- Significance
By around 45,000 years ago, populations of Homo sapiens had spread from Southwest Asia into Europe, encountering Neanderthal populations that had occupied the continent for hundreds of thousands of years.
Genome-wide data from individuals at Bacho Kiro Cave in Bulgaria, dated to roughly 45,900–42,600 years ago, document some of the earliest modern humans on the continent and reveal that several carried recent Neanderthal ancestors. Slightly later, the Aurignacian techno-complex spread across Europe, associated with early European modern humans and characterised by standardised blade tools, bone and antler points, personal ornaments, and figurative art and music. Current evidence supports an east-to-west dispersal beginning in the Balkans, after which people moved up the Danube basin and along the Mediterranean rim within a few millennia. The arrival marks the start of the European Upper Palaeolithic and the beginning of several thousand years of overlap with the continent's indigenous Neanderthals.
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Related exploration & colonisation events
- Seafaring colonisation of Wallacea and Island Southeast Asiac. 45,000 years ago
- Ust'-Ishim man: settlement of Siberia and the oldest modern-human genomec. 45,000 years ago
- Dmanisi: the earliest well-dated humans in Eurasiac. 1.8 million years ago
- Pre-Clovis America: Monte Verde and the Pacific coastal routec. 16,000–14,500 years ago
- Settlement of Sahul: human occupation of Australia at Madjedbebec. 65,000 years ago
- White Sands footprints: humans in the Americas during the Last Glacial Maximumc. 23,000–21,000 years ago
Further reading
The wider story
The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian
Vivid narrative of the Greek and Roman worlds that shaped Europe.
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