Between 35000 and 45000 years ago,
Neanderthals and modern humans lived together in Europe.
What was the p opulation of European early humans at this time?
In the last video,
we investigated the gene types of Homo sapiens, which lived together in the Neanderthal habitat.
Their main paternal gene at this time was haplogroup C.
What kind of life did the first Europeans lead?
And how many people would it have?
Homo sapiens, which has a haplogroup C type paternal gene,
entered Europe 45,000 years ago.
The archaeological industry is just before the beginning of the Late Paleolithic.
It was also the period of the cognitive revolution that Yuval Harari, author of Sapiens, speaks of.
Tools have become more sophisticated and new ways of thinking have used communication methods.
What they created in Europe between 23000 and 43000 is called Aurignacian.
The Aurignacian period was an ice age.
Knowing the topography and climate helps us understand the life of modern humans in the Ice Age.
What was the topography of Europe during this time?
Palaeoclimatically,
there was the Greenland Interstadial and Heinrich Event 4 .
The Heinleigh event refers to 'climate change indicative of a short-term warming trend' that occurred during the Ice Age.
Icebergs from the continental ice sheet have covered the Atlantic Ocean.
The sea level is believed to have risen by about 1 m.
This is an event that occurred 38,000 years ago.
The coastline of Europe at this time would have been like a map.
England and Europe were connected by land.
The Mediterranean coastline has also expanded further towards the sea than it is today.
To the north there was a huge European ice sheet,
and there were also alpine ice sheets in the Alps and Caucasus Mountains.
The Zagros Mountains were also partially covered by ice sheets.
There was a huge lake around the European ice sheet.
The Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea, and the Dead Sea were much wider than they are today.
The flow of the river was also longer and different than it is now.
So, before we get into the climate of this period,
let's take a look at the current climate of Europe.
According to the Köppen climate classification,
the current climatic zones of Northwest Europe,
Central Europe and Northern Europe are Cfb.
Cfb is a Temperate oceanic climate.
The average temperature of the coldest month is 0 °C or 32 °F,
and the average annual temperature is 22 °C or 71.6 °F below.
And the five-month average temperature is at least 10°C higher.
Climatologists' simulations show that
the climate of the Last Glacial Maximum was very different from what it is today.
Even though it was an Ice Age,
it wasn't frozen solid all year round as we know it.
Map the average temperature of Europe during the coldest month 30,000 years ago.
Unlike now, it is distributed from -40°C to 15°C.
The temperature difference was very large.
The above data is a reconstruction of the Collaborative Research Center 806 Database.
Now imagine where the first Europeans lived,
the Aurignacians, with the topography and climate of the Ice Age in your head!
We will use the CRC 806 database to display the ruins where they were excavated on the map.
First, the area where the Aurignacians lived is marked over the present country.
There are many traces of Aurignacian living in northern Spain and southwestern France.
The southern coast of Spain, the inland region of central France,
and the border area between Belgium and Germany are areas with high density of excavation.
In Eastern Europe, it is widely distributed in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria,
Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, etc.
On the Italian Peninsula and Greece, it is mainly found along the coast.
Early Aurignacian sites have also been excavated from the caves of Ksar Akil and Hayonimn in the Levant.
The first Europeans, the Aurignacians,
ived all over Europe, where they spent the Ice Age.
I tried to map where the Aurignacians lived 30,000 years ago on the results of scientists' simulations of European temperatures.
It is a natural result,
It is a natural result, but they lived together in a relatively warm place.
What would happen if we looked at the regions where they lived in the Köppen climate Classification?
Although there may be slight differences,
the simulation results of the Last Glacial Maximum period about 20,000 years ago were applied to the entire ice age.
They lived mainly in the Dfc, Dfb, Cfb and Csb climate zones.
Some of them also lived in the tundra climate zone, ET.
The Dfc is a subarctic climate with little seasonal variation,
with an average origin of the coldest month below 0 °C ,
and an average origin of January-March 10 °C or 50 °F higher.
It can be said that they lived in a better environment than the Aurigna cians who lived in the Dfb climate zone.
Climate zone with an average annual temperature of 22 °C or 71.6 °F ,
and an average temperature of at least 4 months above 10 °C or 50 °F,
although the coldest month's mean origin is below 0 °C or 32 °F lived in
The Aurignacians who lived in the Cfb climatic zone were a better climate environment.
The average temperature of the coldest month is above 0 °C,
and the average annual temperature is below 22 °C.
They have lived in an area where the average temperature for at least 4 months is 10°C or higher.
If the results of the LGM climate simulation are correct,
it is likely that the lifestyles of people living in each climatic zone differed.
The type of dwelling, the food eaten,
and the hunting method must be distinctly different.
Perhaps the artifacts unearthed at the site are also different.
A more in-depth study is needed on this.
After studying this a little more, I will introduce it through another video.
So how many Aurignacians lived here at that time?
Here is a research paper that estimated the population of Aurignacians who lived in Western and Central Europe.
This paper was introduced in PLOS ONE in February 2019.
The population of Aurignacians has been estimated in socio-spatial terms.
The Total Area of ​​Calculation of the area included in the study was 1.5 million square kilometers.
It is about the same size as Mongolia and a little more than twice the size of France.
How many modern humans lived here between 42,000 and 33,000 years ago?
Can you imagine?
In this paper, 13 Australian Core Areas were designated and their population and density were estimated.
The area is marked with a red line on the screen.
The core area covers an area of ​​107,188 square kilometers.
It is slightly larger than South Korea and a little smaller than Bulgari.
Areas for stoneware raw materials are extended areas indicated by dotted lines.
The extension area is 302,126 sq km.
It is about the same size as Italy.
We estimated the population of the Total Area of ​​Calculation, including both areas.
As a result, a minimum of 900 people and a maximum of 3,800 people lived there.
An average of 1500 Aurignacians lived there.
The average population density per 100 km square is 0.103.
If these findings were extended to all of Europe,
the total European population would probably not be 5,000.
Isn't that surprising?
The population, which was less than 5,000 30,000 years ago,
has now grown to about 1 billion.
Around 10,000 BC,
the world's population was said to be 3 million.
Considering that Europe's population accounted for 14.5% of the world's population in 1 AD,
it is estimated that around 10,000 BC,
the population of Europe was about 420,000.
There were only 33,350,000 in AD 1 and only 328,386,000 in 1870.
The number of modern humans has increased exponentially over the past 10,000 years.
On the other hand,
large mammals have decreased proportionally,
and the diversity of their species has also decreased.
And most large mammals are at risk of extinction from the planet.
It was found in the paper that Aurignacians traded with people who lived in remote areas.
The paper reveals that there was a trade in raw materials necessary for making stone tools.
Areas marked in yellow on the map are raw material catchments.
The gray area is the extended area where trade between Cora Areas has taken place.
Arrows indicate the flow of material through the expansion area.
How would raw materials be transported at a time when there was no special means of transport?
They would have had no choice but to carry them on foot.
What would it Aurignacian dwellings look like on a European urban map?
Let's display it using the map map of Natural Earth.
The areas marked in blue are European cities.
Surprisingly, they are almost identical.
Clearly, they had an eye for choosing a place to live.
On the land they choose,
their descendants will build and prosper cities and nations.
What would their life be like?
The stone tools they used were more sophisticated than those of Neanderthals.
And they also used necklaces made of shells.
As dolls made from the bones of now-named animals such as mammoths, rhinos, and Tarpans have been unearthed,
it is presumed that they also engaged in religious activities.
The famous paintings of Chauvet Caves start from this period.
The works they left behind left such amazing achievements that even modern people cannot easily draw them.
We will cover this in detail in another video.
Thank you for watching till the end.
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