Lineage separation· Where Sapiens lives

The western branch turns towards Europe

46.9 ka

About 45,000 years ago, the western branch of the lineage turned towards Europe, where the Neanderthals disappeared within a few thousand years of its arrival.

Orientation towards Europe of the western branch of the bifurcation; within a few thousand years of its arrival, the Neanderthals who occupied the continent have disappeared.

What the evidence shows

The chronology proceeds from radiocarbon dating conducted on a substantial series of newly excavated animal and human bones at Bacho Kiro: the Initial Upper Palaeolithic there is secure between 45,820 and 43,650 calibrated years, and a Middle Palaeolithic occupation older than 51,000 years lies below it, separated by a hiatus of more than three millennia. Genetics complicates the picture rather than confirming it. The three sequenced individuals are closer to present-day populations of East Asia and the Americas than to the western Eurasians who succeeded them, and the populations of Ranis and Zlatý kůň, a small and isolated group, represent the deepest known separation within the lineage issuing from the exit from Africa.

Dating & uncertainty

The oldest modern humans known in Europe, at Bacho Kiro, are dated between 45,900 and 42,600 years. This is the oldest dated presence and not necessarily the first: what separates here is a lineage and not the individuals whose remains happen to have been preserved.