Ancient stone tools discovered in western Ukraine may be the earliest known evidence of human presence in Europe, according to a new study published in the journal Nature.
Chipped stones made from volcanic rock and discovered in a quarry in Korolevo in western Ukraine in the 1970s have been dated to more than 1 million years old using new methods to determine the age of the sedimentary rock layers surrounding the tools.
"This is the oldest evidence of any type of human being in Europe," said Mads Faurschu Knudsen, a geophysicist at Aarhus University in Denmark and a co-author of the study. Although it is not known which of the early human ancestors created these tools, he believes that they may have been Homo erectus, the first representatives of humans who walked upright and had the skills to use fire.
Roman Garba, an archaeologist at the Czech Academy of Sciences and co-author of the study, noted that the chipped stone tools were probably used for cutting meat and possibly for processing animal hides.
Although researchers estimate the age of these tools at 1.4 million years, other experts believe they may be slightly older than 1 million years, which places them in the same date range as other ancient tools found in Spain.
Rick Potts, who directs the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian Institution, noted that the earliest stone tools of this type were found in East Africa and date back to 2.8 million years ago.
The site in Ukraine is of great importance because it is the oldest site in the north, suggesting that early humans who moved out of Africa with these tools could adapt to different environments, including the cold regions of Europe.
