The mid-latitudes of Eurasia were populated by Homo sapiens later than tropical regions. This may well have meant a longer acclimatization period for populations of African origin. The first unmistakable traces of our species in Western Siberia, Eastern Europe and the Altai region date back to around 45,000 years BC. The lithic industries found in these groups are strongly reminiscent of those discovered in the Negev desert around 50,000 BC. Several episodes of hybridization with local Neanderthal and Denisovian populations have been documented. However, the genetic contribution of these archaic populations to the genome of present-day populations is very small, and the phenotypic effects of these introgressions are questionable. On a continental scale, there is a chronological overlap of at least 5,000 years between the first populations ofHomo sapiens in Eastern Europe and those of the last Neanderthals in Western Europe. This relative proximity certainly explains the unprecedented technical and cultural innovations observed among the latest Neanderthals. This first wave of modern migration left few descendants. It was a little later, with the Aurignacian complex, that we witnessed the definitive replacement of Neanderthal populations and the development of human groups that can be linked to present-day Europeans.
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