Anthropologists Map Neanderthals' Long and Winding Roads Across Europe and Eurasia

Scientists uncover unknown ancient migration in Europe through DNA

Genetic sequencing of human remains dating back 45,000 years has revealed a previously unknown migration into Europe and showed intermixing with Neanderthals in that period was more common than previously thought.

2,000 miles through rivers and ice: Mapping neanderthals’ hidden superhighways across eurasia

Neanderthals may have trekked thousands of miles across Eurasia much faster than we ever imagined. New computer simulations suggest they used river valleys like natural highways to cross daunting landscapes during warmer climate windows. These findings not only help solve a long-standing archaeological mystery but also point to the likelihood of encounters and interbreeding with other ancient human species like the Denisovans.

Anthropologists map Neanderthals' long and winding roads across Europe and Eurasia

Recent scholarship has concluded that Neanderthals made a second major migration from Eastern Europe to Central and Eastern Eurasia between 120,000 and 60,000 years ago. But the routes they took have long been a mystery—primarily because there are few archaeological sites connecting the two regions.

Anthropologists Map Neanderthals’ Long and Winding Roads Across Europe and Eurasia (NYU - New York University)

) Computer simulated paths of Neanderthal dispersals demonstrate they could have reached the Altai Mountains in Siberia within 2,000 years

Team maps Neanderthal travels across Europe and Eurasia

"...despite obstacles like mountains and large rivers, Neanderthals could have crossed northern Eurasia surprisingly quickly."