1 00:00:05,400 --> 00:00:08,140 The Rhone Valley in southern France. 2 00:00:09,700 --> 00:00:12,540 A small promontory of white limestone 3 00:00:12,540 --> 00:00:15,800 stands on a slope covered with evergreen oaks. 4 00:00:15,800 --> 00:00:19,700 This outcrop has been attracting the attention of archaeologists 5 00:00:19,700 --> 00:00:22,300 for about 30 years. 6 00:00:22,300 --> 00:00:24,100 It conceals a cave 7 00:00:24,100 --> 00:00:27,740 that was regularly occupied in prehistoric times. 8 00:00:43,820 --> 00:00:47,460 Thanks to the work of Ludovic Slimak's team, 9 00:00:47,460 --> 00:00:52,420 we know that this cave was occupied by Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. 10 00:00:54,980 --> 00:00:59,300 In 2015, after more than 20 years of excavation, 11 00:00:59,300 --> 00:01:02,180 another extraordinary discovery was made. 12 00:01:03,780 --> 00:01:06,740 Numerous fragments of a Neanderthal jawbone 13 00:01:06,740 --> 00:01:12,180 containing DNA, part of a skull and several phalanges were found. 14 00:01:15,540 --> 00:01:18,060 The investigation to date and analyse 15 00:01:18,060 --> 00:01:23,140 this extremely rare archaeological material is an international effort. 16 00:01:26,140 --> 00:01:29,540 Does the Mandrin Cave shed light on the disappearance 17 00:01:29,540 --> 00:01:32,700 of the Neanderthals, who lived on the Eurasian continent 18 00:01:32,700 --> 00:01:34,740 for 300,000 years, 19 00:01:34,740 --> 00:01:37,740 and the arrival of the first Homo sapiens? 20 00:01:39,540 --> 00:01:43,700 Could the two species have met here in the Rhone Valley? 21 00:01:46,020 --> 00:01:49,420 It is one of the most exciting archaeological thrillers 22 00:01:49,420 --> 00:01:51,100 of our time. 23 00:02:01,060 --> 00:02:06,340 By the early 2000s, Neanderthal DNA had been found at only a dozen sites 24 00:02:06,340 --> 00:02:11,340 across Eurasia, from Spain, France, Belgium, Germany and Croatia 25 00:02:11,340 --> 00:02:14,980 to Siberia, but no findings had been made 26 00:02:14,980 --> 00:02:18,300 near the Mandrin Cave in south-eastern France. 27 00:02:18,300 --> 00:02:22,540 The lack of evidence in this area made it difficult to understand 28 00:02:22,540 --> 00:02:25,260 how Homo sapiens replaced Neanderthals 29 00:02:25,260 --> 00:02:27,780 around 42,000 years ago. 30 00:02:31,020 --> 00:02:34,020 The Mandrin Cave has played an important role 31 00:02:34,020 --> 00:02:38,260 in the lives of archaeologists Ludovic Slimak and Laure Metz 32 00:02:38,260 --> 00:02:40,180 for over 20 years, 33 00:02:40,180 --> 00:02:44,260 largely thanks to its exceptionally well-preserved soils. 34 00:02:47,780 --> 00:02:52,780 How has the Mandrin Cave preserved so many flints and bones - 35 00:02:52,780 --> 00:02:55,980 precious relics of the Palaeolithic period? 36 00:03:47,540 --> 00:03:50,140 Excavations at Mandrin have identified 37 00:03:50,140 --> 00:03:52,180 ten main archaeological layers. 38 00:03:54,220 --> 00:03:56,500 Layer A is from the present day. 39 00:03:56,500 --> 00:03:58,500 The oldest is J. 40 00:03:58,500 --> 00:04:00,820 Over a period of 70,000 years, 41 00:04:00,820 --> 00:04:02,540 up until the arrival 42 00:04:02,540 --> 00:04:06,020 of modern humans around 42,000 years ago, 43 00:04:06,020 --> 00:04:09,180 several distinct cultures succeeded one another. 44 00:04:09,180 --> 00:04:12,900 Archaeologists are particularly intrigued by layer E. 45 00:04:55,540 --> 00:04:58,940 What surprised the archaeologists was the sheer number 46 00:04:58,940 --> 00:05:01,740 of pointed objects, probably arrowheads. 47 00:05:02,740 --> 00:05:05,260 They come in two basic shapes, 48 00:05:05,260 --> 00:05:09,060 5cm long and 4mm to 5mm thick, 49 00:05:09,060 --> 00:05:13,060 or less than 3cm long and 2mm to 3mm thick. 50 00:05:13,060 --> 00:05:17,220 These are highly unusual arrowheads which, according to Ludovic, 51 00:05:17,220 --> 00:05:20,500 point to another intriguing find in a nearby cave. 52 00:05:56,780 --> 00:06:02,300 The 1,500 pointed objects in layer E are very mysterious. 53 00:06:02,300 --> 00:06:06,060 Apart from the pointed objects in the Neron Cave, 54 00:06:06,060 --> 00:06:10,300 they bear no resemblance to any other Neanderthal tradition. 55 00:06:10,300 --> 00:06:13,740 Their discovery has raised a host of questions. 56 00:06:16,300 --> 00:06:19,540 By studying the way in which flints are produced, 57 00:06:19,540 --> 00:06:22,740 archaeologists can distinguish between different cultures 58 00:06:22,740 --> 00:06:25,140 and different periods of prehistory. 59 00:06:27,020 --> 00:06:30,620 Traceology, on the other hand, seeks to understand 60 00:06:30,620 --> 00:06:33,900 the function of these flints and how they were used. 61 00:06:36,340 --> 00:06:39,420 Laure Metz is a traceologist who has been working on 62 00:06:39,420 --> 00:06:43,220 the Mandrin Cave scientific project for almost 20 years. 63 00:07:28,300 --> 00:07:31,300 Laure's first clue were the fractures present 64 00:07:31,300 --> 00:07:36,180 on a large number of the micro pointed objects found in layer E. 65 00:07:36,180 --> 00:07:39,780 The cause of these fractures raises questions. 66 00:07:39,780 --> 00:07:43,820 Only projection from a bow could have caused them, 67 00:07:43,820 --> 00:07:48,260 but bows are associated with much later periods of prehistory. 68 00:07:49,780 --> 00:07:53,260 To find out more, Laure invited Christian Trubert, 69 00:07:53,260 --> 00:07:58,260 an expert in prehistoric archery, to conduct some experiments. 70 00:07:58,260 --> 00:08:00,740 They start by making arrows. 71 00:08:45,300 --> 00:08:50,220 Around 15 arrows, designed to be as prehistoric as possible, 72 00:08:50,220 --> 00:08:52,540 were made from glue, natural string 73 00:08:52,540 --> 00:08:54,980 and carefully selected wooden shafts. 74 00:08:59,340 --> 00:09:02,180 Laure has already carried out several experiments 75 00:09:02,180 --> 00:09:04,300 using different means of propulsion 76 00:09:04,300 --> 00:09:07,980 without being able to reproduce the fractures found on the tips. 77 00:09:11,300 --> 00:09:14,140 This time, as if in a hunt, 78 00:09:14,140 --> 00:09:17,260 the archer will shoot an arrow at a goat carcass. 79 00:09:25,620 --> 00:09:29,980 After each shot, Laure records the information needed 80 00:09:29,980 --> 00:09:32,260 to trace each arrow fragment. 81 00:09:38,260 --> 00:09:40,140 Armed with his bow, 82 00:09:40,140 --> 00:09:44,660 which is as prehistoric as the shafts fitted with micro arrowheads, 83 00:09:44,660 --> 00:09:47,980 Christian Trubert aims for the animal's ribcage. 84 00:10:07,780 --> 00:10:09,540 CAMERA CLICKS 85 00:10:09,540 --> 00:10:11,940 Before she can complete her analyses, 86 00:10:11,940 --> 00:10:15,380 Laure and Toumai Boucherat, a surgical expert, 87 00:10:15,380 --> 00:10:19,500 must extract all the flint arrowhead fragments from the body. 88 00:10:19,500 --> 00:10:22,700 The operation resembles an autopsy. 89 00:10:22,700 --> 00:10:24,820 FLIES BUZZ 90 00:10:39,140 --> 00:10:40,660 D'accord. 91 00:11:14,060 --> 00:11:16,780 After recovering all the flint heads, 92 00:11:16,780 --> 00:11:19,500 Laure examines them under a microscope. 93 00:12:18,780 --> 00:12:22,780 This experiment shows that the mysterious pointed objects 94 00:12:22,780 --> 00:12:26,060 found in the E layer were hunting weapons. 95 00:12:26,060 --> 00:12:29,340 So who were these technologically advanced hunters 96 00:12:29,340 --> 00:12:33,220 that frequented the Mandrin Cave 54,000 years ago? 97 00:12:56,020 --> 00:13:00,140 A study of other collections revealed that very similar heads 98 00:13:00,140 --> 00:13:02,260 were found at a site in Lebanon. 99 00:13:04,060 --> 00:13:08,460 So the Homo sapiens groups at both the Mandrin and Lebanese sites 100 00:13:08,460 --> 00:13:10,940 were very close cousins. 101 00:13:10,940 --> 00:13:13,780 But how was it possible for a group of sapiens 102 00:13:13,780 --> 00:13:16,860 from the eastern Mediterranean to travel to Mandrin, 103 00:13:16,860 --> 00:13:19,260 some 4,000km away? 104 00:13:20,540 --> 00:13:24,260 According to Ludovic, they may have come by sea. 105 00:13:55,020 --> 00:13:57,780 The study has revealed that Homo sapiens 106 00:13:57,780 --> 00:14:00,500 from the other side of the Mediterranean, 107 00:14:00,500 --> 00:14:02,540 armed with bows and arrowheads, 108 00:14:02,540 --> 00:14:06,780 occupied the Mandrin Cave around 54,000 years ago - 109 00:14:06,780 --> 00:14:10,260 12,000 years earlier than previously thought. 110 00:14:11,300 --> 00:14:14,260 Further insights into this extraordinary discovery 111 00:14:14,260 --> 00:14:17,660 were uncovered thanks to a surprising find. 112 00:14:32,780 --> 00:14:35,940 Ludovic discovered that the surprising smells 113 00:14:35,940 --> 00:14:40,580 emanated from small stones that had broken away from the cave walls. 114 00:15:15,220 --> 00:15:17,900 The study of the small soot stones 115 00:15:17,900 --> 00:15:21,500 was entrusted to one of the young archaeologists at Mandrin. 116 00:15:23,300 --> 00:15:27,540 Segolene Vandevelde's task promised to be a difficult one 117 00:15:27,540 --> 00:15:31,500 as the study of soot is very rare in archaeology. 118 00:16:13,020 --> 00:16:16,620 Microscopic examination of these rock fragments 119 00:16:16,620 --> 00:16:20,940 opens a window on tens of thousands of years of history. 120 00:16:50,020 --> 00:16:53,020 The sample contains several thin layers, 121 00:16:53,020 --> 00:16:56,300 or films, of soot, as well as calcite rock. 122 00:16:56,300 --> 00:17:00,580 The calcite is made up of alternate layers of large and small crystals. 123 00:17:01,980 --> 00:17:04,340 Each fragment was photographed, 124 00:17:04,340 --> 00:17:07,780 the films of soot noted and the calcite doublets measured. 125 00:17:07,780 --> 00:17:10,940 The information is then converted into a diagram. 126 00:17:55,780 --> 00:17:59,940 After establishing the sapiens' occupation dates in layer E, 127 00:17:59,940 --> 00:18:04,140 Segolene does the same for the Neanderthal occupations in layer F. 128 00:18:30,060 --> 00:18:33,780 So the sapiens replaced the Neanderthals very quickly. 129 00:18:33,780 --> 00:18:36,620 Segolene would like to determine the length of time 130 00:18:36,620 --> 00:18:38,940 between their respective occupations. 131 00:18:38,940 --> 00:18:41,860 To do this, she is counting on a chemical element 132 00:18:41,860 --> 00:18:46,460 present in limestone which is known to be annual - strontium. 133 00:18:49,020 --> 00:18:52,780 An experiment at the CEA's microspectrometry laboratory 134 00:18:52,780 --> 00:18:55,220 should provide her with this information. 135 00:20:27,060 --> 00:20:31,180 The high-resolution record of the Mandrin Cave occupations 136 00:20:31,180 --> 00:20:34,620 show that Homo sapiens lived alongside Neanderthals 137 00:20:34,620 --> 00:20:38,740 for a few years around 54,000 years ago, 138 00:20:38,740 --> 00:20:41,740 before leaving Mandrin and this river bank for good. 139 00:20:42,780 --> 00:20:45,900 According to Ludovic, they may simply have moved 140 00:20:45,900 --> 00:20:47,620 to the opposite bank. 141 00:20:47,620 --> 00:20:50,700 He's observed that after the Homo sapiens left, 142 00:20:50,700 --> 00:20:54,260 the flints that had always been found on both sides of the Rhone 143 00:20:54,260 --> 00:20:56,100 were only found on one side. 144 00:21:43,820 --> 00:21:48,020 The appearance of Homo sapiens around 54,000 years ago 145 00:21:48,020 --> 00:21:51,300 in the Mandrin Cave has radically changed the story 146 00:21:51,300 --> 00:21:54,140 of their arrival in this part of Europe. 147 00:22:05,700 --> 00:22:09,300 After more than 15 years of digs, 148 00:22:09,300 --> 00:22:14,300 the archaeologists now want to explore outside the current cave, 149 00:22:14,300 --> 00:22:18,940 which, 50,000 years ago, was covered by a rock fault. 150 00:22:21,740 --> 00:22:25,700 This area is now protected by a Plexiglas roof. 151 00:23:32,580 --> 00:23:36,300 Ludovic was immediately struck by the Neanderthal character 152 00:23:36,300 --> 00:23:39,980 of these teeth and their remarkable state of preservation. 153 00:24:37,540 --> 00:24:40,580 The Centre for GeoGenetics in Copenhagen 154 00:24:40,580 --> 00:24:43,940 is one of the world's leading laboratories for ancient DNA. 155 00:24:45,900 --> 00:24:48,660 The investigation into the Neanderthal sample 156 00:24:48,660 --> 00:24:52,660 was led by Martin Sikora, assisted by Tharsika Vimala, 157 00:24:52,660 --> 00:24:55,500 two specialists in palaeogenetics. 158 00:25:00,060 --> 00:25:03,860 The first part of the investigation was entrusted to Andaine Seguin. 159 00:25:03,860 --> 00:25:07,500 She had the formidable task of extracting DNA 160 00:25:07,500 --> 00:25:09,740 from the badly damaged sample. 161 00:25:35,180 --> 00:25:38,540 The risk of losing precious genetic data is high. 162 00:25:38,540 --> 00:25:41,380 Extracting DNA from this ancient sample 163 00:25:41,380 --> 00:25:44,900 requires great care and a highly specialised procedure. 164 00:25:54,540 --> 00:25:57,700 The other difficulty is that the ancient DNA 165 00:25:57,700 --> 00:26:01,620 is contaminated by other DNA, such as soil bacteria. 166 00:26:03,580 --> 00:26:07,740 This forces Andaine to use an ingenious palaeogenetic technique. 167 00:26:42,780 --> 00:26:47,340 Their mastery of these intricate palaeogenetic techniques paid off. 168 00:26:47,340 --> 00:26:52,260 The DNA recovered was not complete but it was of exceptional quality, 169 00:26:52,260 --> 00:26:54,780 especially for a Neanderthal. 170 00:26:54,780 --> 00:26:59,260 When I was really happy is when you told me that 171 00:26:59,260 --> 00:27:03,500 the way I proceeded in the lab... Mm. 172 00:27:03,500 --> 00:27:07,700 ..somehow saved the sample, because it was super contaminated 173 00:27:07,700 --> 00:27:09,740 and it was super damaged 174 00:27:09,740 --> 00:27:12,820 and it was with super low endogenous content, 175 00:27:12,820 --> 00:27:15,180 so super low percentage of human DNA. 176 00:27:15,180 --> 00:27:17,820 It looks really good. I'm very positive. 177 00:27:17,820 --> 00:27:21,980 And we are lucky it's a male, so it has a Y chromosome. Exactly. 178 00:27:21,980 --> 00:27:25,860 And we don't have that many male Neanderthals represented. 179 00:27:31,300 --> 00:27:34,780 It didn't take long for the first results of the DNA analysis 180 00:27:34,780 --> 00:27:36,740 to reach the Mandrin Cave. 181 00:28:18,540 --> 00:28:21,660 The jawbones were entrusted to the PACEA laboratory 182 00:28:21,660 --> 00:28:23,740 at the University of Bordeaux. 183 00:28:25,300 --> 00:28:28,340 Clement Zanolli, a palaeoanthropologist 184 00:28:28,340 --> 00:28:31,780 specialising in dental structure, was in charge of studying 185 00:28:31,780 --> 00:28:36,100 these precious remains - essentially teeth and jaw fragments. 186 00:28:49,300 --> 00:28:52,300 Each tooth was scanned with a microtomograph, 187 00:28:52,300 --> 00:28:55,220 providing extremely high-definition images 188 00:28:55,220 --> 00:28:58,500 of both tooth morphology and internal structure. 189 00:29:16,620 --> 00:29:19,300 Clement Zanolli's initial investigations 190 00:29:19,300 --> 00:29:22,060 confirmed the geneticists' conclusions. 191 00:29:22,060 --> 00:29:24,540 This was indeed a Neanderthal. 192 00:29:24,540 --> 00:29:29,140 This wealth of material - 31 teeth and several bone fragments - 193 00:29:29,140 --> 00:29:32,540 should enable us to learn a lot more about Thorin. 194 00:29:54,300 --> 00:29:57,740 Clement had to assemble as many fragments as possible 195 00:29:57,740 --> 00:30:02,140 to offer the most complete digital reconstruction of the individual. 196 00:30:05,820 --> 00:30:08,500 Clement Zanolli invited Dr Esclassan, 197 00:30:08,500 --> 00:30:11,420 professor at the Marseille School of Dental Medicine, 198 00:30:11,420 --> 00:30:14,740 to review this remarkable Neanderthal treasure. 199 00:32:01,300 --> 00:32:05,260 Clement Zanolli's analysis of Thorin has enriched the profile 200 00:32:05,260 --> 00:32:07,500 of this Neanderthal individual. 201 00:32:09,500 --> 00:32:11,620 Although very incomplete, 202 00:32:11,620 --> 00:32:14,980 it has made the archaeologists even more excited. 203 00:32:14,980 --> 00:32:19,380 Only about 15 Neanderthal individuals this well documented 204 00:32:19,380 --> 00:32:20,740 are known to us. 205 00:32:31,340 --> 00:32:35,580 Excavations resumed in the area where Thorin's remains were found. 206 00:32:35,580 --> 00:32:38,500 The hope is to find more of his bones. 207 00:32:46,020 --> 00:32:50,180 Hundreds of artefacts have been unearthed, most of them small - 208 00:32:50,180 --> 00:32:53,740 numerous tiny bone fragments and flint chips. 209 00:33:10,300 --> 00:33:13,020 To find out what these bone fragments are 210 00:33:13,020 --> 00:33:17,100 and if they belong to Thorin, Ludovic uses a new technique 211 00:33:17,100 --> 00:33:19,660 developed at the University of Manchester 212 00:33:19,660 --> 00:33:22,980 which can identify even the smallest bone fragment. 213 00:33:24,780 --> 00:33:29,300 Mike Buckley, the inventor of this formidable technique known as ZooMS, 214 00:33:29,300 --> 00:33:32,500 recently received a package from the Mandrin Cave. 215 00:33:37,500 --> 00:33:39,940 A bag of tiny bone fragments. 216 00:33:41,180 --> 00:33:44,100 Thanks to ZooMS, it should be possible 217 00:33:44,100 --> 00:33:47,980 to make the protein collagen found in bone tissue talk. 218 00:33:56,500 --> 00:34:00,300 One of the main benefits of looking at collagen 219 00:34:00,300 --> 00:34:02,980 as a target for what we analyse with ZooMS 220 00:34:02,980 --> 00:34:06,180 is that it is a very stable protein 221 00:34:06,180 --> 00:34:09,980 that has retained its original signatures 222 00:34:09,980 --> 00:34:13,420 for these hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years. 223 00:34:17,820 --> 00:34:20,540 The samples undergo a series of treatments 224 00:34:20,540 --> 00:34:23,180 to extract collagen from the bone tissue. 225 00:34:23,180 --> 00:34:25,980 They are then prepared for the mass spectrometer. 226 00:34:33,900 --> 00:34:38,780 OK, now, here we are at the MALDI mass spectrometer. 227 00:34:38,780 --> 00:34:42,020 I just need to load in the target plate. 228 00:34:47,260 --> 00:34:49,500 The ZooMS method enables Mike 229 00:34:49,500 --> 00:34:53,260 to make an inventory of all the species present in the samples. 230 00:34:55,380 --> 00:34:59,580 It was really quite exciting when we analysed just the first batch 231 00:34:59,580 --> 00:35:02,300 of around 400 samples. 232 00:35:02,300 --> 00:35:07,220 We saw a good amount of this aurochs, 233 00:35:07,220 --> 00:35:09,020 a bovine. 234 00:35:09,020 --> 00:35:13,060 We saw also a good amount of horse and deer, 235 00:35:13,060 --> 00:35:16,540 a much smaller amount of cave bear. 236 00:35:16,540 --> 00:35:20,260 But what was really interesting was that we had three samples 237 00:35:20,260 --> 00:35:22,820 that gave a hominin signature, 238 00:35:22,820 --> 00:35:26,300 and we can subject that to the radiocarbon dating process. 239 00:35:28,020 --> 00:35:31,580 The three human bone fragments identified by Mike Buckley 240 00:35:31,580 --> 00:35:35,980 are sent to Tom Higham's radiocarbon dating laboratory in Oxford. 241 00:35:40,300 --> 00:35:43,860 Tom Higham is a specialist in carbon-14 dating. 242 00:35:44,980 --> 00:35:48,740 So, in radiocarbon dating, we use a particle accelerator like this 243 00:35:48,740 --> 00:35:51,300 to measure single atoms of carbon-14. 244 00:35:51,300 --> 00:35:54,940 The more carbon-14, the more recent or modern something is. 245 00:35:54,940 --> 00:35:57,500 The less carbon-14, the older it gets. 246 00:35:57,500 --> 00:36:01,540 We can go back to a maximum age of about 50,000 years ago. 247 00:36:01,540 --> 00:36:05,220 But as we get back beyond 40,000 years ago, 248 00:36:05,220 --> 00:36:08,380 we have big challenges in getting the right date 249 00:36:08,380 --> 00:36:12,020 because of contamination that builds up in the bone and charcoal 250 00:36:12,020 --> 00:36:14,940 and other organic samples in these archaeological sites. 251 00:36:17,820 --> 00:36:22,740 The risk of carbon dating errors for bone fragments this age is real. 252 00:36:26,060 --> 00:36:29,700 When we first explored the radiocarbon date of Thorin, 253 00:36:29,700 --> 00:36:32,100 we got a date of around 41,000 years ago. 254 00:36:32,100 --> 00:36:34,980 Thorin is towards the end of the Neanderthal lineage 255 00:36:34,980 --> 00:36:36,980 but he's not the latest Neanderthal. 256 00:36:41,540 --> 00:36:44,300 In Copenhagen, Tharsika has completed 257 00:36:44,300 --> 00:36:48,100 a first phase of analysis of Thorin's genetic material. 258 00:36:48,100 --> 00:36:50,300 Here we have all the reads that are sequenced 259 00:36:50,300 --> 00:36:52,300 for the mitochondrial genome... Mm-hm. 260 00:36:52,300 --> 00:36:54,660 ..and we are actually getting a lot of reads 261 00:36:54,660 --> 00:36:57,420 for each position of the mitochondrial genome, 262 00:36:57,420 --> 00:36:59,140 so that's very good. 263 00:36:59,140 --> 00:37:03,540 It allows us to get some higher certainty for our analysis. 264 00:37:03,540 --> 00:37:05,020 That's very good. 265 00:37:05,020 --> 00:37:08,380 Did you already make a tree to have a look at? Yes, I have a tree. 266 00:37:08,380 --> 00:37:10,540 I have it right here. 267 00:37:10,540 --> 00:37:14,260 I'm using all the Neanderthals that we have data from. 268 00:37:14,260 --> 00:37:17,020 What's actually really interesting about this analysis 269 00:37:17,020 --> 00:37:20,740 is that Thorin is not clustering with the other late Neanderthals 270 00:37:20,740 --> 00:37:23,060 but, actually, he's, erm... 271 00:37:24,100 --> 00:37:27,340 ..actually grouped together with one other Neanderthal. 272 00:37:27,340 --> 00:37:30,380 Yeah, that's super interesting. So what is this closest...? 273 00:37:30,380 --> 00:37:32,980 The closest one is the Mezmaiskaya one. 274 00:37:32,980 --> 00:37:36,100 So the dating of the Mezmaiskaya one is a little bit uncertain, 275 00:37:36,100 --> 00:37:38,500 but around 70,000, 80,000 years old. 276 00:37:38,500 --> 00:37:41,780 So it's clearly not a late... So it's not a late Neanderthal, no, 277 00:37:41,780 --> 00:37:45,220 but one that he's sharing the most genetic variation with. 278 00:37:45,220 --> 00:37:47,980 Well, that's quite surprising, no? I mean... Yeah. 279 00:37:47,980 --> 00:37:50,300 As far as we know, all the archaeological data 280 00:37:50,300 --> 00:37:52,460 points to a much more recent age. Exactly. 281 00:37:52,460 --> 00:37:55,300 It's, like, double the age of what we would have expected. 282 00:37:55,300 --> 00:37:57,540 It's just a very crude analysis. Exactly, 283 00:37:57,540 --> 00:38:00,020 because I'm not using that many parameters here, 284 00:38:00,020 --> 00:38:03,340 I'm just counting the number of mutations that are different 285 00:38:03,340 --> 00:38:07,140 between the Neanderthals and then calculating the age based on that. 286 00:38:07,140 --> 00:38:10,500 We should have another look at trying some more models with... 287 00:38:10,500 --> 00:38:13,700 Yeah. Yeah, and we should also talk to Ludovic about this, 288 00:38:13,700 --> 00:38:16,780 because this really doesn't agree with what he has said about 289 00:38:16,780 --> 00:38:19,980 the dating. I think they're not going to be too happy about that. 290 00:38:19,980 --> 00:38:22,580 According to the genetics, it's not a late Neanderthal, 291 00:38:22,580 --> 00:38:24,020 it's an early Neanderthal. 292 00:38:25,100 --> 00:38:29,220 Thorin's genome is quite different to Western European Neanderthals 293 00:38:29,220 --> 00:38:32,060 dated to around 50,000 years ago. 294 00:38:32,060 --> 00:38:35,980 He is genetically closer to a Siberian individual 295 00:38:35,980 --> 00:38:38,300 dated to 80,000 years ago. 296 00:38:38,300 --> 00:38:41,180 This makes Thorin genetically isolated 297 00:38:41,180 --> 00:38:43,780 and much older than the archaeological layer 298 00:38:43,780 --> 00:38:48,260 where his bones were found, which is dated to 42,000 years ago. 299 00:39:14,980 --> 00:39:20,620 The dating to 105,000 years ago threw the team into turmoil. 300 00:39:20,620 --> 00:39:24,220 Tom Higham decided to go back to Thorin's dating. 301 00:39:27,540 --> 00:39:31,340 The first time we used this method to radiocarbon date Thorin, 302 00:39:31,340 --> 00:39:34,540 we got a date that was just over 41,000 years ago, 303 00:39:34,540 --> 00:39:38,300 but we could see there was a potential problem with the sample. 304 00:39:38,300 --> 00:39:40,620 We had some indications in the chemistry 305 00:39:40,620 --> 00:39:43,820 that it wasn't quite right, and so we asked for more material 306 00:39:43,820 --> 00:39:47,020 to see if we could radiocarbon date the sample again. 307 00:39:47,020 --> 00:39:49,420 And, fortunately, there was more material - 308 00:39:49,420 --> 00:39:51,780 a single piece of bone - that we could date, 309 00:39:51,780 --> 00:39:55,500 and, using this material, we were able to date the sample not once, 310 00:39:55,500 --> 00:39:57,660 not twice, but three times 311 00:39:57,660 --> 00:40:00,300 to make sure we absolutely had the right date. 312 00:40:00,300 --> 00:40:04,060 All of the results that we got were statistically the same 313 00:40:04,060 --> 00:40:09,460 and they indicated that the sample was more than 48,000 years old. 314 00:40:11,340 --> 00:40:15,300 Back in Copenhagen, the geneticists discovered that the genome 315 00:40:15,300 --> 00:40:19,780 of a Neanderthal from Gibraltar recently made public 316 00:40:19,780 --> 00:40:23,580 displayed very strong parallels to Thorin. 317 00:40:23,580 --> 00:40:25,620 Hi, Ludovic. How's it going? 318 00:40:25,620 --> 00:40:29,020 Oh, nice to see you. Nice to see you. I hope all is well. 319 00:40:29,020 --> 00:40:31,340 So we have some quite nice new results 320 00:40:31,340 --> 00:40:33,820 in terms of the relationship of Thorin 321 00:40:33,820 --> 00:40:36,940 with some of the other Neanderthal genomes we've been looking at. 322 00:40:36,940 --> 00:40:39,940 We do find some similarities with Iberian Neanderthals, 323 00:40:39,940 --> 00:40:42,140 in particular these ones from Gibraltar, 324 00:40:42,140 --> 00:40:44,780 from the Forbes' Quarry site, so, I mean, maybe Tharsika 325 00:40:44,780 --> 00:40:47,340 can elaborate a bit more on what exactly we're finding. 326 00:40:47,340 --> 00:40:50,140 Yeah, so what we are finding from our DNA analysis 327 00:40:50,140 --> 00:40:55,020 is that Thorin is very similar to these early Neanderthals, 328 00:40:55,020 --> 00:40:58,620 so the Neanderthals that lived around 100,000 years ago, 329 00:40:58,620 --> 00:41:01,100 and not so much like the late Neanderthals - 330 00:41:01,100 --> 00:41:03,900 the ones that lived around 40,000, 50,000 years ago, 331 00:41:03,900 --> 00:41:05,460 which is very interesting 332 00:41:05,460 --> 00:41:07,820 because that was not what we had expected to see. 333 00:41:07,820 --> 00:41:09,820 The issue with Forbes' Quarry 334 00:41:09,820 --> 00:41:14,260 is that we don't actually have confident dating of the remains. 335 00:41:14,260 --> 00:41:16,620 We just have a genetic profile. 336 00:41:16,620 --> 00:41:20,300 Now we have something that match with the Thorin population... 337 00:41:20,300 --> 00:41:23,300 Exactly. ..but Forbes' Quarry, it was excavated 338 00:41:23,300 --> 00:41:25,540 in the middle of the 19th century. 339 00:41:25,540 --> 00:41:28,300 There is no true archaeological context, 340 00:41:28,300 --> 00:41:32,260 but, as far as I remember, yes, they proposed an age, 341 00:41:32,260 --> 00:41:36,340 and they are talking of something from 80,000 to 100,000. 342 00:41:36,340 --> 00:41:38,820 With this group of Neanderthals, we have nothing 343 00:41:38,820 --> 00:41:41,060 to actually calibrate with, and that means 344 00:41:41,060 --> 00:41:44,180 there are some uncertainties in our molecular clock estimates. 345 00:41:44,180 --> 00:41:47,780 Do you think you could use the Thorin data 346 00:41:47,780 --> 00:41:50,780 to try to calibrate the Forbes' Quarry data? 347 00:41:50,780 --> 00:41:52,740 This is exactly what's interesting, 348 00:41:52,740 --> 00:41:56,180 because if Thorin is closer to the early Neanderthals, 349 00:41:56,180 --> 00:42:01,020 then we could use your dating from the layers as a calibration. 350 00:42:01,020 --> 00:42:06,460 So we can put in that Thorin is 45,000 to 50,000 years old 351 00:42:06,460 --> 00:42:10,220 and then we can see, well, do we get any different estimates 352 00:42:10,220 --> 00:42:12,740 for the surrounding Neanderthals 353 00:42:12,740 --> 00:42:15,820 that have a similar genetic profile as Thorin? 354 00:42:15,820 --> 00:42:19,060 This change a lot all what we understand 355 00:42:19,060 --> 00:42:23,020 about the late Neanderthal because, if I follow you well, 356 00:42:23,020 --> 00:42:27,180 Forbes' Quarry in southern Spain and the Thorin population 357 00:42:27,180 --> 00:42:29,100 should be one population, 358 00:42:29,100 --> 00:42:34,060 and this population is deeply divergent with the late Neanderthal. 359 00:42:34,060 --> 00:42:39,060 So, if you're right, we could draw a Mediterranean population 360 00:42:39,060 --> 00:42:43,140 but go from southern Spain to the Rhone Valley, so something huge. 361 00:42:43,140 --> 00:42:45,900 That would be interesting because that would suggest 362 00:42:45,900 --> 00:42:48,620 that we have one population staying in one place, 363 00:42:48,620 --> 00:42:53,300 not interacting with any of the new Neanderthals coming in. 364 00:42:53,300 --> 00:42:55,500 I don't know how likely that would be. 365 00:42:55,500 --> 00:42:57,660 In terms of DNA, 366 00:42:57,660 --> 00:43:00,820 Forbes' Quarry and Thorin should be the same age. 367 00:43:01,900 --> 00:43:04,100 Yeah, I mean, it would point to that, right? 368 00:43:04,100 --> 00:43:06,860 It could be part of the same metapopulation, if you want. 369 00:43:06,860 --> 00:43:09,500 And so we would have process of isolations 370 00:43:09,500 --> 00:43:11,540 between Neanderthal population 371 00:43:11,540 --> 00:43:15,580 that would also fit very well with your genetic data 372 00:43:15,580 --> 00:43:19,300 that show that there's a question of isolation. Yeah, no, absolutely. 373 00:43:19,300 --> 00:43:22,180 I think this is definitely something we should try, right, 374 00:43:22,180 --> 00:43:25,180 so I think that's... Yeah. It would be very nice. 375 00:43:25,180 --> 00:43:27,220 And it would be a cool story. 376 00:43:27,220 --> 00:43:29,940 A fantastic one. Yeah. 377 00:43:33,540 --> 00:43:36,300 The archaeologists also await the results 378 00:43:36,300 --> 00:43:39,260 of a new direct dating study of Thorin, 379 00:43:39,260 --> 00:43:42,140 carried out by Renaud Joannes-Boyau 380 00:43:42,140 --> 00:43:45,260 of Australia's Southern Cross University. 381 00:43:48,500 --> 00:43:50,940 Hi, Renaud. How's it going? Good. How are you, Tom? 382 00:43:50,940 --> 00:43:54,780 Yeah, great. As you know, we have a kind of difficult, 383 00:43:54,780 --> 00:43:57,180 challenging situation at the moment here. 384 00:43:57,180 --> 00:44:00,540 We've got the radiocarbon dates we've done on Thorin, 385 00:44:00,540 --> 00:44:04,180 which are very consistent in telling us 386 00:44:04,180 --> 00:44:08,300 that the radiocarbon age is around 49,000 years ago, 387 00:44:08,300 --> 00:44:13,620 but the genetic estimates for the age of the mitochondrial lineage 388 00:44:13,620 --> 00:44:16,300 are estimated to go back much, much earlier than that - 389 00:44:16,300 --> 00:44:19,460 more than 100,000 years, perhaps even 120,000 years. 390 00:44:19,460 --> 00:44:21,180 That's where you come in 391 00:44:21,180 --> 00:44:24,060 and your techniques of ESR and uranium series dating. 392 00:44:24,060 --> 00:44:26,020 So we have the results already. 393 00:44:26,020 --> 00:44:30,100 We conducted some ablation around the enamel and dentine, 394 00:44:30,100 --> 00:44:34,300 looking at the diffusion of uranium inside the tooth. 395 00:44:34,300 --> 00:44:37,340 What we can say is we have a minimum age 396 00:44:37,340 --> 00:44:40,940 of about 43,000 years ago. Wow. 397 00:44:40,940 --> 00:44:43,300 Yeah. The problem with the uranium series 398 00:44:43,300 --> 00:44:45,460 is, of course, it's a minimum age... Yes. 399 00:44:45,460 --> 00:44:48,540 ..so one could argue that it could be actually much older. Right. 400 00:44:48,540 --> 00:44:52,260 So what we do is we measure how much radiation, radioactivity, 401 00:44:52,260 --> 00:44:54,340 has been received by the enamel 402 00:44:54,340 --> 00:44:57,060 and that gives us an intensity of the signal... Mm. 403 00:44:57,060 --> 00:44:59,940 ..and that intensity, we translate that in years, 404 00:44:59,940 --> 00:45:03,020 and we have an age of 48,000 plus or minus four. 405 00:45:03,020 --> 00:45:05,300 Oh, brilliant. So that brackets the age. 406 00:45:05,300 --> 00:45:08,780 Either it's older than 43 and younger than 48, right? 407 00:45:08,780 --> 00:45:11,180 And younger than 52. 408 00:45:11,180 --> 00:45:14,380 Oh! Oh, wow, wow, wow. That's brilliant. 409 00:45:14,380 --> 00:45:17,620 That's really exactly where I'd hoped that the results would sit. 410 00:45:17,620 --> 00:45:21,300 But what's clear is that it's very, very different from the estimate 411 00:45:21,300 --> 00:45:25,220 on the mitochondrial DNA and the other genetic data, 412 00:45:25,220 --> 00:45:29,820 so it looks as though Thorin is in the last few thousand years 413 00:45:29,820 --> 00:45:32,060 of the Neanderthal lineage in Europe. 414 00:45:32,060 --> 00:45:34,540 We know that European Neanderthals disappear 415 00:45:34,540 --> 00:45:37,940 between 39,000 to 40,000 years ago, so he's around 10,000 years 416 00:45:37,940 --> 00:45:40,460 older than that, plus or minus a couple of thousand. 417 00:45:46,820 --> 00:45:50,060 Thorin is now considered a late Neanderthal. 418 00:45:50,060 --> 00:45:54,340 The same goes for his closest cousin from Forbes' Quarry. 419 00:45:54,340 --> 00:45:59,340 These Mediterranean Neanderthals, isolated for over 50,000 years, 420 00:45:59,340 --> 00:46:03,460 form a completely new Neanderthal population. 421 00:46:32,260 --> 00:46:34,540 Finally certain of Thorin's age 422 00:46:34,540 --> 00:46:37,380 and that his closest relative is in Gibraltar, 423 00:46:37,380 --> 00:46:40,500 Ludovic travelled to the southernmost tip of Europe. 424 00:46:41,740 --> 00:46:44,020 He was eager to compare his thoughts 425 00:46:44,020 --> 00:46:47,060 with those of the archaeologist Clive Finlayson, 426 00:46:47,060 --> 00:46:50,700 who has been leading research there for the past three decades. 427 00:46:56,300 --> 00:47:01,020 So this is the famous Gibraltar 1 skull, Neanderthal skull, 428 00:47:01,020 --> 00:47:03,820 from Forbes' Quarry, found in 1848. 429 00:47:03,820 --> 00:47:08,060 And this is the one that recently had DNA extracted from it. 430 00:47:08,060 --> 00:47:11,100 It was very... Almost miraculous. Yeah. 431 00:47:11,100 --> 00:47:13,940 If you look at it, to me, it looks very gracile compared to some 432 00:47:13,940 --> 00:47:17,100 of the other Neanderthals. I know they've got the large eye sockets, 433 00:47:17,100 --> 00:47:19,180 they all have that, and the large nose, 434 00:47:19,180 --> 00:47:22,940 but, really, in terms of brow ridge, it's quite a gracile Neanderthal. 435 00:47:22,940 --> 00:47:27,340 We know that the skull can't be more than 45,000 to 50,000... 436 00:47:27,340 --> 00:47:30,740 Well, I'm going to let you in on a secret here. 437 00:47:30,740 --> 00:47:34,100 We found the levels where we think this skull was found, 438 00:47:34,100 --> 00:47:37,100 we're quite sure, and we've dated it with uranium-thorium 439 00:47:37,100 --> 00:47:40,740 above and below, and it's sandwiched in between 440 00:47:40,740 --> 00:47:44,020 60,000 and 40,000 years ago. LUDOVIC CHUCKLES 441 00:47:44,020 --> 00:47:46,540 Ludovic was delighted to learn this, 442 00:47:46,540 --> 00:47:49,500 as it confirmed that the Neanderthal at Forbes' Quarry 443 00:47:49,500 --> 00:47:52,260 was roughly the same age as Thorin. 444 00:47:52,260 --> 00:47:54,180 Clive took his visitor 445 00:47:54,180 --> 00:47:57,740 to the impressive Gorham and Vanguard cave complex. 446 00:47:59,340 --> 00:48:04,060 So, here we are. This is... You're going to see Vanguard Cave... Wow. 447 00:48:04,060 --> 00:48:06,300 ..and Gorham's Cave is around the back. 448 00:48:06,300 --> 00:48:09,340 We're in the southernmost tip of Europe. 449 00:48:09,340 --> 00:48:12,620 What you see over there is the coast of North Africa. 450 00:48:12,620 --> 00:48:14,380 It's very, very near. Wow. 451 00:48:14,380 --> 00:48:16,700 Come to the lost world, as I like to call it. 452 00:48:16,700 --> 00:48:18,260 LUDOVIC LAUGHS Thank you. 453 00:48:22,780 --> 00:48:26,740 People - Neanderthals - lived here for maybe 100,000 years. 454 00:48:28,740 --> 00:48:30,940 Welcome to Vanguard Cave. 455 00:48:30,940 --> 00:48:32,540 Whoa! 456 00:48:32,540 --> 00:48:34,740 Huge cave. CLIVE CHUCKLES 457 00:48:34,740 --> 00:48:36,500 Fantastic. 458 00:48:42,260 --> 00:48:44,540 Just like the Mandrin Cave, 459 00:48:44,540 --> 00:48:46,900 the remains of Neanderthal occupations 460 00:48:46,900 --> 00:48:49,860 have been extraordinarily well preserved 461 00:48:49,860 --> 00:48:52,260 by the continually drifting sand. 462 00:48:55,540 --> 00:49:00,020 If we make a reconstitution of what was the landscape 463 00:49:00,020 --> 00:49:04,700 in that time period, by 50,000 years ago, 60,000, 464 00:49:04,700 --> 00:49:07,460 so the sea was lower? 465 00:49:08,500 --> 00:49:12,780 During that period, the sea level can drop to a maximum of 120, 466 00:49:12,780 --> 00:49:17,140 but it's really... The average may be minus 80m for a long time. 467 00:49:17,140 --> 00:49:19,300 The coast is 4km away. 468 00:49:19,300 --> 00:49:23,100 It's not dense woodland, it's open with trees and you have these lakes. 469 00:49:24,180 --> 00:49:27,260 Now we have genetic connections. Yeah. 470 00:49:27,260 --> 00:49:29,540 The population we have here in Gibraltar 471 00:49:29,540 --> 00:49:32,780 are the population we have in Mediterranean France. Yeah. 472 00:49:32,780 --> 00:49:35,340 Well, that's very exciting for us to hear that, 473 00:49:35,340 --> 00:49:37,620 but, for me, it was music to my ears to hear 474 00:49:37,620 --> 00:49:39,540 what is going on with the genetics. 475 00:49:39,540 --> 00:49:41,780 It's a wonderful connection to have. 476 00:49:41,780 --> 00:49:44,540 What we see is that this population are the same. 477 00:49:44,540 --> 00:49:46,980 They are genetically the same population. 478 00:49:46,980 --> 00:49:49,820 And... And they are isolated by 479 00:49:49,820 --> 00:49:53,740 most of the European classic Neanderthals for a very long time. 480 00:49:53,740 --> 00:49:57,020 We know that Neanderthals were mixing with other Neanderthals 481 00:49:57,020 --> 00:50:00,020 and with other modern humans sometimes, and so on, 482 00:50:00,020 --> 00:50:03,300 so it's not that they weren't capable or didn't want to... Yeah. 483 00:50:03,300 --> 00:50:06,540 ..there must have been some other kind of barrier... Exactly. 484 00:50:06,540 --> 00:50:10,540 ..which perhaps was a biogeographical ecological barrier, 485 00:50:10,540 --> 00:50:13,540 maybe then supported by maybe cultural barriers. 486 00:50:13,540 --> 00:50:17,300 What is important, we see the landscape, we are facing... 487 00:50:17,300 --> 00:50:20,300 There are cliffs along the sea and a lot of mountains, 488 00:50:20,300 --> 00:50:24,540 very high mountains. My feeling is that what we may be looking at here 489 00:50:24,540 --> 00:50:27,300 is a corridor which connects... 490 00:50:27,300 --> 00:50:30,940 Maybe it's counterintuitive, but it connects from here 491 00:50:30,940 --> 00:50:33,220 to France on the Mediterranean coast. 492 00:50:35,300 --> 00:50:39,780 The Mediterranean Sea was 100m lower during this Ice Age, 493 00:50:39,780 --> 00:50:42,940 allowing people to travel along the coasts of Spain, 494 00:50:42,940 --> 00:50:44,780 France and Italy. 495 00:50:44,780 --> 00:50:47,980 It was possible to travel from Gibraltar to Mandrin 496 00:50:47,980 --> 00:50:49,980 along this coastal corridor. 497 00:50:49,980 --> 00:50:52,660 Now we know that this Neanderthal world 498 00:50:52,660 --> 00:50:55,060 is much more complex than what we thought 499 00:50:55,060 --> 00:50:58,180 and it's not a question of two populations, it's at least three, 500 00:50:58,180 --> 00:51:00,340 and so we should have the classic Neanderthal, 501 00:51:00,340 --> 00:51:02,300 we should have the Homo sapiens, of course, 502 00:51:02,300 --> 00:51:05,100 and then we should have this Mediterranean population... 503 00:51:05,100 --> 00:51:07,980 Population. ..on which we didn't know anything a year ago. 504 00:51:07,980 --> 00:51:12,020 And we need to start looking at this new world of the Neanderthals. 505 00:51:12,020 --> 00:51:16,540 When we came down into the cave, I said, "Welcome to the lost world." 506 00:51:16,540 --> 00:51:19,020 LUDOVIC LAUGHS I didn't really realise 507 00:51:19,020 --> 00:51:21,700 that it wasn't just this cave I'm talking about, 508 00:51:21,700 --> 00:51:25,100 that all that, in many ways, is a lost world. 509 00:51:25,100 --> 00:51:27,100 This makes a lot of sense 510 00:51:27,100 --> 00:51:30,780 and this is very rich for the future, I think. 511 00:51:30,780 --> 00:51:35,060 At the moment, we're in the verge of a change of paradigm, I think. 512 00:51:35,060 --> 00:51:38,060 We just opened a window. Opened a window, absolutely. 513 00:51:42,580 --> 00:51:47,220 The Mandrin Cave is a long way from revealing all of its secrets, 514 00:51:47,220 --> 00:51:50,540 but several major discoveries have been made. 515 00:51:50,540 --> 00:51:53,620 The arrival of the first sapiens in Western Europe 516 00:51:53,620 --> 00:51:57,300 has been brought forward by more than 10,000 years. 517 00:51:57,300 --> 00:52:00,300 For the first time, a genuine encounter 518 00:52:00,300 --> 00:52:04,020 between our species, the sapiens, and the Neanderthals 519 00:52:04,020 --> 00:52:06,340 has been proven to have occurred here. 520 00:52:07,380 --> 00:52:10,020 And, incredibly, Thorin's discovery 521 00:52:10,020 --> 00:52:13,260 revealed a brand-new Neanderthal population... 522 00:52:15,060 --> 00:52:19,740 ..isolated for 60,000 years on the shores of the Mediterranean.