List of human evolution fossils
Holocene ( 11,500 – 5,000 years old )
Table:
Name

Age

Culture /
association

Year
discovered

Country

Luzia

11.5 ka[136]

Paleo-Indian

1975

Brazil

[137]

Cerro Sota 2[138]

11 ka

1936

Chile

"Satsurblia"

10 ka

Caucasian Epipaleolithic (CHG)[133]

Georgia

Kow Swamp 1

13–9 ka

1968

Australia

Talgai Skull[139]

10±1 ka

1886

Australia

La Brea Woman

10 ka

Paleo-Indian

1914

United States

Combe Capelle

9.6 ka (7600 BC)[140]

European Mesolithic

1909

France

Cheddar Man

9 ka (7000 BC)

British Mesolithic

1903

UK

Kennewick Man

9 ka (7000 BC)

Archaic period (North America)

1996

United States

Tepexpan man

8±3 ka

Paleo-Indian

1947

Mexico

Loschbour man[141]

8 ka (6000 BC)

European Mesolithic (WHG)

1935

Luxembourg

Minnesota Woman

7.9±0.1 ka

Paleo-Indian

1931

Minnesota, United States

Lothagam 4b (Lo 4b)[142]

7.5±1.5 ka[143]

1965-1975

Kenya

Ötzi

5.3 ka (3300 BC)

European Neolithic

1991

Ötztal Alps, Italy

Using the given table plus the supplementary paragraphs provided.

Answer the following question: Who discovered the Paleo-Indian fossil found in 1975 in Brazil ? Output only the correct answer as {"answer": "YOUR ANSWER"}. Avoid adding external knowledge.

Luzia Woman ( Portuguese pronunciation : [ luˈzi.ɐ ] ) is the name for an Upper Paleolithic period skeleton of a Paleo-Indian woman who was found in a cave in Brazil . Some archaeologists believed the young woman may have been part of the first wave of immigrants to South America . The 11,500-year-old skeleton was found in a cave in the Lapa Vermelha archeological site in Pedro Leopoldo , in the Greater Belo Horizonte region of Brazil , in 1974 by archaeologist Annette Laming-Emperaire . The nickname Luzia was chosen in homage to the Australopithecus fossil Lucy . The fossil was kept at the National Museum of Brazil , where it was shown to the public until it was fragmented during a fire that destroyed the museum on September 2 , 2018 . On October 19 , 2018 , it was announced that most of Luzia 's remains were identified from the Museu Nacional debris , which allowed them to rebuild part of her skeleton .
Paleo-Indians , Paleoindians or Paleoamericans , were the first peoples who entered , and subsequently inhabited , the Americas during the final glacial episodes of the late Pleistocene period . The prefix paleo- comes from the Greek adjective palaios ( παλαιός ) , meaning old or ancient . The term Paleo-Indians applies specifically to the lithic period in the Western Hemisphere and is distinct from the term Paleolithic . Traditional theories suggest that big-animal hunters crossed the Bering Strait from North Asia into the Americas over a land-and-ice bridge ( Beringia ) . This bridge existed from 45,000 to 12,000 BCE ( 47,000-14,000 BP ) . Small isolated groups of hunter-gatherers migrated alongside herds of large herbivores far into Alaska . From c. 16,500 - c. 13,500 BCE ( c. 18,500 - c. 15,500 BP ) , ice-free corridors developed along the Pacific coast and valleys of North America . This allowed animals , followed by humans , to migrate south into the interior of the continent . The people went on foot or used primitive boats along the coastline . The precise dates and routes of the peopling of the New World remain subjects of ongoing debate . At least two morphologically different Paleo-Indian populations were coexisting in different geographical areas of Mexico 10,000 years ago . Stone tools , particularly projectile points and scrapers , are the primary evidence of the earliest human activity in the Americas .
Satsurblia Cave ( Georgian : საწურბლიას მღვიმე ) is a paleoanthropological site located near Kumistavi village , Tsqaltubo Municipality , in the Imereti region of Georgia . The karst cave was first excavated in 1976 by A. N. Kalandadze .
Trialetian is the name for an Upper Paleolithic-Epipaleolithic stone tool industry from the area south of the Caucasus Mountains and to the northern Zagros Mountains . It is tentatively dated to the period between 16,000 / 13,000 BP and 8,000 BP .
Caucasus hunter-gatherer ( CHG ) , also called Satsurblia Cluster is the name of an anatomically modern human genetic lineage , first identified in a 2015 study , based on the population genetics of several modern Western Eurasian ( European , Caucasian and Near Eastern ) populations . CHG ancestry was also found as represented in ancient DNA , in a Upper Palaeolithic specimen from Satsurblia cave ( dated ca . 11000 BC ) , and in a Mesolithic one from Kotias Klde cave , in western Georgia ( dated ca . 6000 BC ) . The CHG lineage descended from a population that split off the base Western Eurasian lineage very early , around 45,000 years ago , pre-dating the split that led to differentiated populations that descended separately to Ust'-Ishim man , Oase1 and European hunter-gatherers . The Caucasus hunter-gatherers managed to survive in isolation through the Last Glacial Maximum as a distinct population . Eastern Hunter-Gatherers are believed to have received admixture from CHGs , leading to the formation of Western Steppe Herders ( WSHs ) . WSHs formed the Yamnaya culture and expanded massively throughout Europe during the Early Neolithic and Early Bronze Age . The 2015 study by Jones et al . analysed Eurasian steppe ancestry - which is associated with the Ancient North Eurasian lineage - among modern European populations , which is linked to the Indo-European expansion . In comparison to modern human populations , the Satsurblia individual is closest to modern populations from the South Caucasus .
The Kow Swamp archaeological site comprises a series of late Pleistocene burials within the lunette of the eastern rim of a former lake known as Kow Swamp . The site is located 10 km south-east of Cohuna in the central Murray River valley , in northern Victoria , at 35°57′13″S 144°19′05″E / 35.953553°S 144.318123°E / -35.953553 ; 144.318123 . The site is significant for archaeological excavations by Alan Thorne between 1968 and 1972 which recovered the partial skeletal remains of more than 22 individuals .
The Talgai Skull is a human fossil found on the Talgai Station , Queensland , Australia . It has been dated indirectly , based on the radiocarbon date of a carbonate nodule found in stratigraphic proximity , at 13,500 years old .
La Brea Woman is the name for a human whose remains were found in the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles , California . The remains , first discovered in the pits in 1914 , were the partial skeleton of a woman . At around 18-25 years of age at death , she has been dated at 10,220-10,250 calendar years BP . These are the only human remains to have ever been discovered at the La Brea Tar Pits .
Combe-Capelle is a Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic site situated in the Couze valley in the Périgord region of southern France . Henri-Marc Ami carried out excavations in the area from the late 1920s until his death in 1931 . The famous Homo sapiens fossil from Combe-Capelle , discovered in 1909 was sold to the Museum für Völkerkunde , Berlin , in 1910 . It was for a long time considered to be 30,000 years old , an Upper Paleolithic Cro-Magnon man and one of the oldest finds of modern humans in Europe , formerly classified as Homo aurignaciensis hauseri . This was revised in a 2011 study , which dated collagen from a tooth of the skull in Berlin with accelerator mass spectrometry . The fossil was found to date to the early Holocene ( Mesolithic Europe ) , at 9,500 years old .
The 8th millennium BC spanned the years 8000 BC to 7001 BC ( c. 10 ka to c. 9 ka ) . It is impossible to precisely date events that happened around the time of this millennium and all dates mentioned here are estimates mostly based on geological and anthropological analysis .
In Old World archaeology , Mesolithic ( Greek : μέσος , mesos middle ; λίθος , lithos stone ) is the period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic . The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymously , especially for outside northern Europe , and for the corresponding period in the Levant and Caucasus . The Mesolithic has different time spans in different parts of Eurasia . It refers to the final period of hunter-gatherer cultures in Europe and Western Asia , between the end of the Last Glacial Maximum and the Neolithic Revolution . In Europe it spans roughly 15,000 to 5,000 BP ; in Southwest Asia ( the Epipalaeolithic Near East ) roughly 20,000 to 8,000 BP . The term is less used of areas further east , and not at all beyond Eurasia and North Africa . The type of culture associated with the Mesolithic varies between areas , but it is associated with a decline in the group hunting of large animals in favour of a broader hunter-gatherer way of life , and the development of more sophisticated and typically smaller lithic tools and weapons than the heavy chipped equivalents typical of the Paleolithic . Depending on the region , some use of pottery and textiles may be found in sites allocated to the Mesolithic , but generally indications of agriculture are taken as marking transition into the Neolithic . The more permanent settlements tend to be close to the sea or inland waters offering a good supply of food . Mesolithic societies are not seen as very complex , and burials are fairly simple ; in contrast , grandiose burial mounds are a mark of the Neolithic .
France ( French : [ fʁɑ̃s ] ( listen ) ) , officially the French Republic ( French : République française , pronounced [ ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛːz ] ( listen ) ) , is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories . [ XIII ] The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea , and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean . It is bordered by Belgium , Luxembourg and Germany to the northeast , Switzerland and Italy to the east , and Andorra and Spain to the south . The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic , Pacific and Indian oceans . The country 's 18 integral regions ( five of which are situated overseas ) span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres ( 248,573 sq mi ) and a total population of 67.02 million ( as of July 2019 [ update ] ) . France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris , the country 's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre . Other major urban areas include Lyon , Marseille , Toulouse , Bordeaux , Lille and Nice . France , including its overseas territories , has the most number of time zones of any country , with a total of 12 . During the Iron Age , what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls , a Celtic people . Rome annexed the area in 51 BC , holding it until the arrival of Germanic Franks in 476 , who formed the Kingdom of Francia . The Treaty of Verdun of 843 partitioned Francia into East Francia , Middle Francia and West Francia . West Francia , which became the Kingdom of France in 987 , emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages , following its victory in the Hundred Years ' War ( 1337-1453 ) .
Cheddar Man is a human male fossil found in Gough 's Cave in Cheddar Gorge , Somerset , England . The skeletal remains date to the Mesolithic ( ca . 9100 BP ) and it appears that he died a violent death . A large crater-like lesion just above the skull 's right orbit suggests that the man may have also been suffering from a bone infection . Excavated in 1903 , Cheddar Man is Britain 's oldest complete human skeleton . The remains are kept by the Natural History Museum in London in the new Human Evolution gallery . Analysis of his nuclear DNA indicates that he was a typical member of the western European population at the time , probably with lactose intolerance , light eyes ( most likely green but could be blue or hazel ) , dark brown or black hair , and dark or dark to black skin . However , a subsequent report in New Scientist announced some scepticism from within the scientific community including the geneticist who worked on the findings .
Several species of humans have intermittently occupied Britain for almost a million years . The Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD is conventionally regarded as the end of Prehistoric Britain and the start of recorded history in the island , although some historical information is available from before then . The earliest evidence of human occupation around 900,000 years ago is at Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast , with stone tools and footprints probably made by Homo antecessor . The oldest human fossils , around 500,000 years old , are of Homo heidelbergensis at Boxgrove in Sussex . Until this time Britain had been permanently connected to the Continent by a chalk ridge between south-east England and northern France called the Weald-Artois Anticline , but during the Anglian Glaciation around 425,000 years ago a megaflood broke through the ridge , creating the English Channel , and after that Britain became an island when sea levels rose during interglacials . Fossils of very early Neanderthals dating to around 400,000 years ago have been found at Swanscombe in Kent , and of classic Neanderthals about 225,000 years old at Pontnewydd in Wales . Britain was unoccupied by humans between 180,000 and 60,000 years ago , when Neanderthals returned . By 40,000 years ago they had become extinct and modern humans had reached Britain . But even their occupations were brief and intermittent due to a climate which swung between low temperatures with a tundra habitat and severe ice ages which made Britain uninhabitable for long periods . The last of these , the Younger Dryas , ended around 11,700 years ago , and since then Britain has been continuously occupied . Britain and Ireland were then joined to the Continent , but rising sea levels cut the land bridge between Britain and Ireland by around 11,000 years ago . A large plain between Britain and Continental Europe , known as Doggerland , persisted much longer , probably until around 5600 BC .
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland , commonly known as the United Kingdom ( UK or U.K. ) or Britain , [ note 11 ] is a sovereign country located off the north­western coast of the European mainland . Existing under its current name since 1921 , the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain , the north­eastern part of the island of Ireland , and many smaller islands . Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland . Otherwise , the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean , with the North Sea to the east , the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the southwest , giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world . The Irish Sea separates Great Britain and Ireland . The total area of the United Kingdom is 94,000 square miles ( 240,000 km2 ) . The United Kingdom is a unitary parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy . [ note 12 ] The current monarch is Queen Elizabeth II , who has reigned since 1952 , making her the world 's longest-serving current head of state . The United Kingdom 's capital and largest city is London , a global city and financial centre with an urban area population of 10.3 million . Other major cities include Birmingham , Manchester , Glasgow , Leeds and Liverpool . The United Kingdom consists of four constituent countries : England , Scotland , Wales , and Northern Ireland . Their capitals are London , Edinburgh , Cardiff , and Belfast , respectively .
Kennewick Man is the name generally given to the skeletal remains of a prehistoric Paleoamerican man found on a bank of the Columbia River in Kennewick , Washington , United States , on July 28 , 1996 . It is one of the most complete ancient skeletons ever found . Radiocarbon tests on bone have shown it to date from 8.9k to 9k calibrated years before present , but it was not until 2013 that Ancient DNA analysis techniques had improved enough to shed light on the remains . In June 2015 , it was announced that Kennewick Man had most genetic similarity among living peoples to Native Americans , including those in the Columbia River region where the skeleton was found . The discovery led to considerable controversy for more than a decade . The Umatilla people and other tribes demanded the remains returned for reburial under the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act ( NAGPRA ) . The law was designed to return human remains and cultural objects which had long been unlawfully obtained or taken from them . In this case , the archaeologists who studied the bones , James Chatters and Douglas Owsley , the latter with the Smithsonian Institution , both asserted that the bones were only distantly related to today 's Native Americans . They also said the remains had features that more closely resembled Polynesian or Southeast Asian peoples , a finding that would exempt the bones from NAGPRA . Kennewick Man became the subject of a controversial nine-year court case between the United States Army Corps of Engineers ( USACE ) , scientists , and Native American tribes who claimed ownership of the remains . Under NAGPRA , the tribes had the right to rebury the remains of Kennewick Man and to refuse scientific study of the man they referred to as the Ancient One . The US Army Corps of Engineers , which oversaw the land where the remains were found , initially agreed with the requests of the tribes .
In the classification of the archaeological cultures of North America , the Archaic period in North America , taken to last from around 8500 to 3000 BC in the sequence of North American pre-Columbian cultural stages , is a period defined by the archaic stage of cultural development . The Archaic stage is characterized by subsistence economies supported through the exploitation of nuts , seeds , and shellfish . As its ending is defined by the adoption of sedentary farming , this date can vary significantly across the Americas . The rest of the Americas also have an Archaic Period .
The United States of America ( USA ) , commonly known as the United States ( U.S. or US ) or America , is a country consisting of 50 states , a federal district , five major self-governing territories , and various possessions . [ g ] At 3.8 million square miles ( 9.8 million km2 ) , it is the world 's third or fourth-largest country by total area [ b ] and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe . Most of the country is located in central North America between Canada and Mexico . With an estimated population of over 328 million , the U.S. is the third most populous country in the world . The capital is Washington , D.C. , and the most populous city is New York City . Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago . European colonization began in the 16th century . The United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast . Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies led to the American Revolutionary War lasting between 1775 and 1783 , leading to independence . The United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century - gradually acquiring new territories , displacing Native Americans , and admitting new states - until by 1848 it spanned the continent . During the second half of the 19th century , the American Civil War led to the abolition of slavery in the United States . The Spanish-American War and World War I confirmed the country 's status as a global military power .
The Tepexpan Man is a Pre-Columbian-era skeleton , discovered by archaeologist Helmut de Terra in February 1947 , on the shores of the former Lake Texcoco in central Mexico . The skeleton was found near mammoth remains and thought to be at least 10,000 years old . It was fancifully hailed by Time magazine as the oldest Mexican soldier . The skeleton was found lying face down with the arms under the chest and the legs drawn up to the stomach . The body most likely sunk into the mud surrounding it , leaving the shoulder , back , and hips exposed , which might explain why those elements are missing . It is possible that the body was originally deposited in the lake .
Mexico ( Spanish : México [ ˈmexiko ] ( listen ) ; Nahuatl languages : Mēxihco ) , officially the United Mexican States ( UMS ; Spanish : Estados Unidos Mexicanos , EUM [ esˈtaðos uˈniðoz mexiˈkanos ] ( listen ) , lit . Mexican United States ) , is a country in the southern portion of North America . It is bordered to the north by the United States ; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean ; to the southeast by Guatemala , Belize , and the Caribbean Sea ; and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico . Covering almost 2,000,000 square kilometers ( 770,000 sq mi ) , the nation is the fifth largest country in the Americas by total area and the 13th largest independent state in the world . With an estimated population of over 129 million people , Mexico is the tenth most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world , while being the second most populous nation in Latin America after Brazil . Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states plus Mexico City ( CDMX ) , which is the capital city and its most populous city . Other metropolises in the country include Guadalajara , Monterrey , Puebla , Toluca , Tijuana , and León . Pre-Columbian Mexico dates to about 8000 BC and is identified as one of six cradles of civilization and was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Olmec , Toltec , Teotihuacan , Zapotec , Maya , and Aztec before first contact with Europeans . In 1521 , the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its politically powerful base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan ( part of Mexico City ) , which was administered as the viceroyalty of New Spain . The Roman Catholic Church played a powerful role in governing the country as millions were converted to the faith , although King Charles III expelled the Jesuits in the 1770s . The territory became a nation state following its recognition in 1821 after the Mexican War of Independence . The post-independence period was tumultuous , characterized by economic inequality and many contrasting political changes .
The Loschbour man ( also Loschbur man ) is a skeleton of Homo sapiens from the European Mesolithic discovered in 1935 in Mullerthal , in the commune of Waldbillig , Luxembourg .
In archaeogenetics , the term Western Hunter-Gatherer , West European Hunter-Gatherer or Western European Hunter-Gatherer , is the name given to a distinct ancestral component that represents descent from Mesolithic hunter-gatherers of Western , Southern and Central Europe . The term is often abbreviated as WHG . During the Mesolithic , the WHGs inhabited an area stretching from the British Isles in the west to the Carpathians in the east . Along with Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherers ( SHG ) and Eastern Hunter-Gatherers ( EHG ) , the WHGs constituted one of the three main genetic groups in the postglacial period of early Holocene Europe . The border between WHGs and EHGs ran roughly from the lower Danube , northward along the western forests of the Dnieper towards the western Baltic Sea . Genetic studies indicate that the WHGs were a mix of Upper Paleolithic people ( Cro-Magnon ) of the Grotte du Bichon and EHGs , who carried 75% Ancient North Eurasian ( ANE ) ancestry . [ citation needed ] SHGs were in turn an equal mix of WHGs and EHGs . Once widely dispersed throughout Europe , the WHGs were largely displaced by successive expansions of Early European Farmers ( EEFs ) during the early Neolithic , but experience a male-driven resurgence during the Middle Neolithic . During the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age , Western Steppe Herders ( WSHs ) from the Pontic-Caspian steppe embarked on a massive expansion , which further displaced the WHGs . Among modern-day populations , WHG ancestry is most common among populations of the eastern Baltic .
Minnesota Woman , also known as Pelican Rapids-Minnesota Woman , is the skeletal remains of a woman thought to be 8,000 years old . The bones were found near Pelican Rapids , Minnesota on June 16 , 1931 , during construction on U.S. Route 59 . The bones were brought to Dr. Albert Jenks at the University of Minnesota , who identified them as the bones of a woman who was 15 or 16 years old , but who had never borne children . The woman had two artifacts - a dagger made from an elk 's horn and a conch shell pendant . The conch shell came from a snail species known as Busycon perversa , which had previously only been known to exist in Florida . The road crew dug up the site without an investigation by archaeologists , so some of the exact details of the woman 's death were hard to determine . The site indicated that the woman had not been ritually buried , and there was a thin layer of broken clam or mussel shells over the body . This led to the hypothesis that the woman had drowned , either by breaking through the ice or by falling off a boat , and that her body had been covered in mud at the bottom of a glacial lake . Before 1926 , most scientists theorized that human beings had only appeared in America within the last couple of thousand years . The discovery of Minnesota Woman provided evidence that humans had been in America for many thousand years before that . Scientists now recognize the girl as someone whose ancestors were Paleo-Indian . Radiocarbon dating places the age of the bones approximately 8,000 years ago , approximately 7890 ±70 BP or near the beginning of the Archaic period in Minnesota .
Minnesota ( /ˌmɪnɪˈsoʊtə/ ( listen ) ) is a state in the Upper Midwest , Great Lakes , and northern regions of the United States . Minnesota was admitted as the 32nd U.S. state on May 11 , 1858 , created from the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory . The state has many lakes , and is known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes . Its official motto is L'Étoile du Nord ( French : Star of the North ) . Minnesota is the 12th largest in area and the 22nd most populous of the U.S. states ; nearly 55% of its residents live in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area ( known as the Twin Cities ) . This area has the largest concentration of transportation , business , industry , education , and government in the state . Urban centers in Greater Minnesota include Duluth , Mankato , Moorhead , Rochester and St . Cloud . The geography of the state consists of western prairies now given over to intensive agriculture ; deciduous forests in the southeast , now partially cleared , farmed , and settled ; and the less populated North Woods , used for mining , forestry , and recreation . Thousands of years before Europeans arrived , Minnesota was inhabited by various indigenous peoples , some of whom remain in the state today . French explorers , missionaries , and fur traders began exploring the region in the 17th century , encountering the Dakota and Ojibwe/Anishinaabe tribes . Much of what is now Minnesota was part of the vast French holding of Louisiana , which was purchased by the United States in 1803 .
Ötzi ( German pronunciation : [ ˈœtsi ] ( listen ) ) , also called the Iceman , the Similaun Man ( Italian : Mummia del Similaun ) , the Man from Hauslabjoch , the Tyrolean Iceman , and the Hauslabjoch mummy , is the well-preserved natural mummy of a man who lived between 3400 and 3100 BCE . The mummy was found in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps , hence the nickname Ötzi , near Similaun mountain and Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy . He is Europe 's oldest known natural human mummy , and has offered an unprecedented view of Chalcolithic ( Copper Age ) Europeans . His body and belongings are displayed in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano , South Tyrol , Italy .
Neolithic Europe is the period when Neolithic technology was present in Europe , roughly between 7000 BCE ( the approximate time of the first farming societies in Greece ) and c. 1700 BCE ( the beginning of the Bronze Age in Scandinavia ) . The Neolithic overlaps the Mesolithic and Bronze Age periods in Europe as cultural changes moved from the southeast to northwest at about 1 km/year - this is called the Neolithic Expansion . The duration of the Neolithic varies from place to place , its end marked by the introduction of bronze implements : in southeast Europe it is approximately 4,000 years ( i.e . 7000 BCE-3000 BCE ) while in parts of Northwest Europe it is just under 3,000 years ( c. 4500 BCE-1700 BCE ) . The spread of the Neolithic from the Near East Neolithic to Europe was first studied quantitatively in the 1970s , when a sufficient number of 14C age determinations for early Neolithic sites had become available . Ammerman and Cavalli-Sforza discovered a linear relationship between the age of an Early Neolithic site and its distance from the conventional source in the Near East ( Jericho ) , thus demonstrating that , on average , the Neolithic spread at a constant speed of about 1 km/yr . More recent studies confirm these results and yield the speed of 0.6-1.3 km/yr at 95% confidence level .
The Ötztal Alps ( Italian : Alpi Venoste , German : Ötztaler Alpen ) are a mountain range in the Central Eastern Alps , in the State of Tyrol in southern Austria and the Province of South Tyrol in northern Italy .