New research has unveiled a previously undocumented climatic event that forced early humans to vacate Europe for a span of 200,000 years, only for them to later readjust and return.
Around 1.1 million years ago, a remarkable cooling phenomenon, heretofore unfamiliar to the scientific community, caused temperatures to plummet by over 5 degrees Celsius, as indicated by ocean sediment records.
Inhabitants of that era lacked the technological means to withstand these harsh conditions, lacking heating systems and insulated garments that are commonplace today.
Until recently, it was widely held that human presence in Europe had persisted uninterrupted for 1.5 million years. However, evidence of this significant cold spell has been identified within the sediment layers off the coast of Lisbon, Portugal, shedding light on the conditions of the time. These sediment layers, forming annually, provide insights into historical sea conditions and contain pollen grains that offer a glimpse into past terrestrial vegetation.
Scientists at the IBS Centre for Climate Physics in Busan, South Korea, employed computational models utilizing data extracted from these sediments. Their findings reveal a substantial drop in average winter temperatures across various parts of Europe, with even the typically milder Mediterranean region experiencing temperatures well below freezing.
While such a temperature decrease might appear manageable in today’s context, where many have access to heating, warm clothing, and a consistent food supply, this wasn’t the scenario for early human populations. Professor Axel Timmermann, the group’s director, noted that the nascent humans of that era were ill-equipped to confront such extreme environmental challenges. The absence of direct evidence indicating their control over fire during this period further underscores the difficulty these extremely cold and arid conditions posed to their survival.
