page_title: Early human migrations
section_title: After H. erectus
hierarchical_section_title: Early human migrations / Early humans (before Homo sapiens) / After H. erectus
caption_attribution_description: English: Known Neanderthal range in Europe (blue), Southwest Asia (orange), Uzbekistan (green), and the Altai mountains (violet), as inferred by their skeletal remains (not stone tools). For sources, please see en:User:Nicolas_Perrault_III/List_of_Neanderthals In the English Channel, Crimea, the Caucasus, Southwest Asia, Uzbekistan, and the Altai Mountains, tiny single-pixel black points indicate sites where Neanderthal bones have been found. In Europe, only one or two single-pixel points per country is depicted. In the English Channel: La Cotte de St-Brelade (Jersey, 13 teeth of single adult) Krijn, Dutch waters In Crimea: Kiik-Koba Zaskal'naya In the Russian Caucasus: Mezmaiskaya In Georgia: Bronze Cave Dzhruchula Ortvale Klde Sakazia In Armenia: Yerevan In Turkey: Karain Cave (four teeth) In Lebanon: Ksâr 'Akil (teeth and partial maxilla) El Masloukh (Lebanon, one tooth) In Israel and the West Bank: Kebara (Kebara 2 and many others) Shuqba (tooth and cranial fragments) Tabun (nearly complete adult and many others) Ein Qashish (lower limbs) Shovakh (tooth) Amud (nearly complete adult and others) In Syria: Dederiyeh (two infants, among others) In Iraq: Shanidar Cave In Iran: Bisitun In Uzbekistan: Teshik-Tash (juvenile skeleton) Obi-Rakhmat (skull fragments and teeth) In Asian Russia: Chagyrskaya (partial mandible) Okladnik'ov (humerus and femur) Denisova (genetically identified fragments) Europe has so many Neanderthals, that I am still in the process of indexing them (see en:User:Nicolas_Perrault_III/List_of_Neanderthals). For a country to be in blue here, a Neanderthal bone must be found on the mainland (thus excluding for the Netherlands the Neanderthal found in the water). In Greece, although the Peloponnesus is connected to the mainland, and indeed is part of it, only that peninsula is coloured. This is to show that there is a gap in the Balkans. To include a country in Europe on this map, only one example is required (these are also represented by black single-pixel dots on the map): France: Arcy-sur-Cure Britain: Bontnewydd Belgium: Spy Germany: Neandertal Spain: Sidrón Portugal: Figueira Brava Italy: Monte Circeo Switzerland: Cotencher Hungary: Subalyuk (in Hungarian) Czechia: Kůlna Slovakia: Gánovce Poland: Stajnia Cave Croatia: Krapina and Vindija Serbia: Pešturina Montenegro: Crvena stijena (in Bosnian) Bulgaria: Kozarnika Romania: Ohaba-Ponor Greece (Peloponnesus): Kalamakia, Mani Peninsula The following countries, as of the cited dates, had no Neanderthal remains. Among other sources, this is according to the Catalogue of Fossil Hominids (1970), and an Update to this Catalogue for ex-USSR countries (1992). It is possible that Neanderthals were discovered more recently in these countries, but I found no article to that effect. Netherlands: 2009 (Many news sources claimed the "first Dutch Neanderthal" in 2009 when Krijn was said a Neanderthal. But this was not on the mainland.) Austria: 1969 Luxemburg: 1969 Ukraine (excluding Crimea): 1992
context_page_description: Early human migrations are the earliest migrations and expansions of archaic and modern humans across continents and are believed to have begun approximately 2 million years ago with the early expansions of hominins out of Africa of Homo erectus. This initial migration was followed by other archaic humans including H. heidelbergensis, which lived around 500,000 years ago and was the likely ancestor of both Denisovans and Neanderthals. Early hominids were said to have "crossed land bridges that were eventually covered in water".
  Within Africa, Homo sapiens dispersed around the time of its speciation, roughly 300,000 years ago. The recent African origin paradigm suggests that the anatomically modern humans outside of Africa descend from a population of Homo sapiens migrating from East Africa roughly 70–50,000 years ago and spreading along the southern coast of Asia and to Oceania by about 50,000 years ago. Modern humans spread across Europe about 40,000 years ago.
  Early Eurasian Homo sapiens fossils have been found in Israel and Greece, dated to 194,000–177,000 and 210,000 years old respectively.
context_section_description: One million years after its dispersal, H. erectus was diverging into new species. H. erectus is a chronospecies and was never extinct, so that its "late survival" is a matter of taxonomic convention. Late forms of H. erectus are thought to have survived until after about 0.5 million ago to 143,000 years ago at the latest, with derived forms classified as H. antecessor in Europe around 800,000 years ago and H. heidelbergensis in Africa around 600,000 years ago. H. heidelbergensis in its turn spread across East Africa (H. rhodesiensis) and to Eurasia, where it gave rise to Neanderthals and Denisovans.
  H. heidelbergensis, Neanderthals and Denisovans expanded north beyond the 50th parallel (Eartham Pit, Boxgrove 500kya, Swanscombe Heritage Park 400kya, Denisova Cave 50 kya). It has been suggested that late Neanderthals may even have reached the boundary of the Arctic, by c. 32,000 years ago, when they were being displaced from their earlier habitats by H. sapiens, based on 2011 excavations at the site of Byzovaya in the Urals (Komi Republic, 65.02°N 57.42°E).
  Other archaic human species are assumed to have spread throughout Africa by this time, although the fossil record is sparse. Their presence is assumed based on traces of admixture with modern humans found in the genome of African populations. Homo naledi, discovered in South Africa in 2013 and tentatively dated to about 300,000 years ago, may represent fossil evidence of such an archaic human species.
  Neanderthals spread across the Near East and Europe, while Denisovans appear to have spread across Central and East Asia and to Southeast Asia and Oceania. There is evidence that Denisovans interbred with Neanderthals in Central Asia where their habitats overlapped.
caption: Known Neanderthal range with separate populations in Europe and the Caucasus (blue), the Near East (orange), Uzbekistan (green), and the Altai region (purple)
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