First Cavemen Lived In France 176,500 Years Ago, Used Fire And Built Complex Structures

The caveman lifestyle began in France around 176,500 years ago, which pushes back their timeline by 138,000 years, according to recent reports. Researchers working at the Bruniquel Cave uncovered human made structures that were found to be four and a half times older than other prehistoric caves in regions of southern France like Arceche and Chauvet. Until now, the earliest inhabited cave discovered was dated back to 38,000 years ago.

The Bruniquel Cave is located in the Tarn et Garonne region of southwestern France. The 336 meters ring of stalagmites found inside showed traces of human architecture, making them the first such known examples in the history of human kind. Furthermore, the cave also showed traces of fire being used by the early Neanderthals, which means they had knowledge of circulating it in enclosed areas far away from daylight, well before Homo sapiens did the same.    

Bruniquel Cave was discovered in 1990 on a site overlooking the Aveyron Valley in southern France, and it was kept in a pristine condition for future analysis. In 1995, a researching team of speleologists dated a burnt bone to be 47,600 years old, using carbon dating. In 2013, another group of researchers launched a new program of analyses and studies, which used 3D survey and magnetic study to find out more about the cave and its former inhabitants.

400 stalagmites were found to be broken off from the cave floor and kept in circles, many of which were held in position by other debris, according to the researchers. The stalagmite artifacts, termed speleofacts, were discovered to be darkened by soot and scorched suggesting they were probably arranged in a circular manner around the outer periphery of fire pits.

The researchers derived the age of human inhabitation by comparing the age of the old calcite growth on the stalagmite before they were broken off from the floor, and the new calcite growth that took place once the Neanderthals abandoned the cave, which came to 176,500 years ago.

"We now know that, some 140 millennia before the arrival of modern man, Europe's first Neanderthals were occupying deep caves, building complex structures and maintaining fires in them,"  wrote the scientists. The very existence of these human made structures which are complex compared to their  time and technology have now baffled scientists, because the earliest examples of humans making incursions into the underground world where sunlight did not reach has only been traced to the beginning of the recent Paleolithic age. However, the structures in Bruniquel Cave were made long before humans arrived in Europe 40,000 years ago. Therefore, the researchers suggested that the cavemen would have been Neanderthals, which itself is a surprising fact. Neanderthals are not known for their underground dwelling or sophisticated use of fire and lighting or detailed construction.

Researchers are now trying to figure out the purpose of such structures, and they think such a place deep down could not have been used for shelter. The team is speculating a number of reasons, such as it being used for water storage to religious rites. According to a report, after observing the examples of the human made structures, scientists have confirmed that the extinct species of humans had an advanced social organization.