Modern humans reach Europe
Our species enters Neanderthal territory around 45,000 years ago, and the genomes show how recently they mixed.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 2 thousand years
- Known to
- ± 2 thousand years
- Era
- Late Pleistocene, Quaternary
Sites including Bacho Kiro in Bulgaria and Zlaty kun in Czechia record modern humans in Europe by about 45,000 years ago. Their genomes are startling: several carry long, unbroken Neanderthal segments indicating a Neanderthal ancestor only five or six generations back. Some of these earliest European populations contributed nothing to later Europeans — they were dead ends, and Europe was colonised more than once.