‘Cosmic clock’ dates earliest human presence in Europe
By Katie Hunt
Stone tools unearthed in a quarry in Ukraine belonged to ancient humans who used them more than a million years ago, according to new research.
The fresh dating analysis of the artifacts reveals the earliest known presence of hominins in Europe, said Roman Garba, an archaeologist at the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. The first humans to inhabit Europe made their way from east to west, the report also suggested.
Initial dating of the Korolevo archaeological site, discovered in the 1970s, suggested it had been used for more than 800,000 years. Archaeologists have recovered 90,000 stone tools from the site, which lies close to Ukraine’s southwestern border with Hungary and Romania.