Rewriting human prehistory in Central Asia
Long before modern humans were thought to have arrived in Eurasia, advanced stone tool technologies were already present in Central Asia. Recent discoveries in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan reveal that blade tools resembling those of the Initial Upper Palaeolithic (IUP) date back as far as 77 000 years, which is prior to what was expected. This raises a crucial question: did modern humans reach the region earlier than previously believed, or did Neanderthals or Denisovans develop similar techniques independently?
The ERC-funded INASIA project seeks to answer this by studying new cave sites, using a multidisciplinary approach to uncover who made these tools, how they lived, and whether they interacted with other human species, reshaping our understanding of early human migration.
Information about EU funding.