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00:01The Rhône Valley in southern France.
00:08A small promontory of white limestone stands on a slope covered with evergreen oaks.
00:16This outcrop has been attracting the attention of archaeologists for about 30 years.
00:22It conceals a cave that was regularly occupied in prehistoric times.
00:27At Mandrin, tens of thousands of archaeological objects were found in each level of installation.
00:35The population returned from the 120th millennia to the Neanderthal extinction in 42,000 years ago.
00:43Thanks to the work of Ludovic Sleemak's team, we know that this cave was occupied by Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.
00:51In 2015, after more than 20 years of excavation, another extraordinary discovery was made.
01:02Numerous fragments of a Neanderthal jawbone containing DNA, part of a skull and several phalanges were found.
01:11The investigation to date and analyse this extremely rare archaeological material is an international effort.
01:23Does the Mandrin cave shed light on the disappearance of the Neanderthals who lived on the Eurasian continent for 300,000 years and the arrival of the first Homo sapiens?
01:37Could the two species have met here, in the Rhone Valley?
01:44It is one of the most exciting archaeological thrillers of our time.
01:49By the early 2000s, Neanderthal DNA had been found at only a dozen sites across Eurasia.
02:08From Spain, France, Belgium, Germany and Croatia to Siberia.
02:12But no findings had been made near the Mandrin cave in south-eastern France.
02:18The lack of evidence in this area made it difficult to understand how Homo sapiens replaced Neanderthals around 42,000 years ago.
02:27The Mandrin cave has played an important role in the lives of archaeologists Ludovic Slimac and Lor Metz for over 20 years.
02:40Largely thanks to its exceptionally well-preserved soils.
02:43How has the Mandrin cave preserved so many flints and bones, precious relics of the Paleolithic period?
02:57We are on the front of the Mandrin cave.
03:00We are on the front of the Mandrin cave.
03:01And we look at the north.
03:03And what we see, of course, is the monts of Vivare, the central mass mass,
03:07who died directly on the Berges of the Rhône.
03:10And then, in the middle, we have this absolutely major migration axis.
03:14And at the time, it was very cold, there was no green cover, we are in polar climate.
03:19And so, the Mistral will take the sand and the limons, all the sediment,
03:25on the Berges of the Rhône.
03:27We see the circulation.
03:29It will take the sediment on the Berges of the river.
03:32It will be very violent.
03:34It will be deposited in the river and it will make a continuous recording.
03:39It's a bit like a Pompeii without a catastrophic character, but a Pompeii continuous.
03:47Excavations at Mandrin have identified ten main archaeological layers.
03:54Layer A is from the present day.
03:56The oldest is J.
03:58Over a period of 70,000 years, up until the arrival of modern humans around 42,000 years ago,
04:05several distinct cultures succeeded one another.
04:08Archaeologists are particularly intrigued by Layer E.
04:13We are facing a sequence where everything is archaeological.
04:17Everything that is recorded there is ancient.
04:20We go from where I have my hand, we are in the 54th millennium,
04:25and we arrive at the summit of the 42th millennium,
04:28which is the moment of the Neandertalian extinction.
04:30What is very interesting is that in this thickness of sediment,
04:34we have six archaeological levels very rich,
04:37and the oldest one here, 54,000 years ago,
04:40has delivered us, for more than two decades,
04:43some archaeological elements that are very astonishing.
04:47It's also different than if we had, for example, an Roman installation,
04:51and there, above it, we saw transistors.
04:54What surprised the archaeologists was the sheer number of pointed objects,
05:00probably arrowheads.
05:02They come in two basic shapes,
05:05five centimetres long and four to five millimetres thick,
05:08or less than three centimetres long and two to three millimetres thick.
05:12These are highly unusual arrowheads, which, according to Ludovic,
05:16point to another intriguing find in a nearby cave.
05:20In my PhD test in 2004, I gave the name in particular to these objects,
05:25the Neandertalian, which is the Neandertalian cave,
05:30which is located at 70 kilometres north,
05:32and which was a very rich site, very ancient site,
05:35where I could recognize the same silex.
05:38When I talk about Neandertalian, in 2004,
05:48we don't know the age of all that,
05:50but we see that it's something very exciting, very modern.
05:56The 1,500 pointed objects in layer E are very mysterious.
06:01Apart from the pointed objects in the Neandertalian cave,
06:05they bear no resemblance to any other Neandertal tradition.
06:10Their discovery has raised a host of questions.
06:16By studying the way in which flints are produced,
06:19archaeologists can distinguish between different cultures
06:22and different periods of prehistory.
06:27Traceology, on the other hand,
06:29seeks to understand the function of these flints
06:32and how they were used.
06:36Lore Metz is a traceologist
06:38who has been working on the Mondrain Cave scientific project
06:41for almost 20 years.
06:43Technically, we distinguish pretty easily
06:46the productions of Neandertalian
06:47from the modern modern
06:50which are more standardised
06:52than those of the Neandertalian,
06:54even tardive.
06:55But from a point of view function,
06:57the use of the tools
07:00change little.
07:01In the domestic sphere,
07:03we find the same activities
07:05of cutting,
07:07and of racked,
07:08on the other hand,
07:09on the same types of pieces,
07:12such as lames,
07:13rackloirs,
07:14and lights.
07:15But on the other hand,
07:16on the traceology,
07:17we see big changes
07:18in terms of the types of weapons
07:20that are used.
07:21Lore's first clue
07:30were the fractures present
07:31on a large number
07:32of the micro-pointed objects
07:34found in layer E.
07:36The cause of these fractures
07:38raises questions.
07:39Only projection from a bow
07:41could have caused them.
07:43But bows are associated
07:45with much later periods
07:47of prehistory.
07:49To find out more,
07:51Lore invited Christian Troubert,
07:53an expert in prehistoric archery,
07:56to conduct some experiments.
07:58They start by making arrows.
08:01Christian,
08:03I made a selection
08:04with the pointes of flèches
08:06that you made
08:07and the embouts
08:08that will be mounted together.
08:10For example,
08:11in terms of the large part
08:13of the pointe,
08:14I adapted the embout
08:15that could correspond to the best,
08:16that is to say
08:17a diameter of the fus
08:19inferior or equal
08:20to the large part
08:21of the pointe.
08:22Exactly.
08:23Exactly.
08:24I would like to have your opinion
08:25on the efficiency
08:26of this type of armature.
08:27We can't create
08:29an other montage
08:30than that.
08:31Since these points
08:32are so light,
08:34they must be supported
08:35by a fairly dense embout
08:37to give the mass
08:40to the projective.
08:41This will make
08:42a very effective weapon.
08:45Around 15 arrows,
08:47designed to be
08:48as prehistoric as possible,
08:50were made from glue,
08:51natural string
08:52and carefully selected
08:53wooden shafts.
08:55the archer's
08:56using different means
08:57of propulsion
08:58without being able
08:59to reproduce
09:00the fractures
09:01found on the tips.
09:02This time,
09:03as if in a hunt,
09:04the archer will shoot
09:05an arrow
09:06at a goat carcass.
09:07After each shot,
09:22Law records the information
09:24needed to trace
09:26each arrow fragment.
09:28He records the information
09:29needed to trace
09:30each arrow fragment.
09:35Armed with his bow,
09:39which is as prehistoric
09:41as the shafts fitted
09:42with micro arrowheads,
09:44Christian Troubert aims
09:45for the animal's ribcage.
09:47She hasn't entered a lot,
09:48I think.
09:49So,
09:50we're at 103.
09:51So,
09:52in the mountains,
09:53it touched the mountains.
09:54Here,
09:55there.
09:56Before she can complete
09:57her analyses,
09:58Law and Tumai Bouchara,
10:00a surgical expert,
10:02must extract
10:03all the functions
10:04of her ribcage.
10:05Before she can complete
10:07her analyses,
10:08Law and Tumai Bouchara,
10:09a surgical expert,
10:11must extract
10:12all the functions
10:14of her ribcage.
10:15Before she can complete
10:16her analyses,
10:17two flint arrowhead fragments
10:18from the body.
10:19The operation
10:20resembles an autopsy.
10:47So,
10:48she is there.
10:49She moved laterally.
10:50Yes,
10:51but there's a piece
10:52that's stopped.
10:53And...
10:54Wow!
10:55There?
10:56There?
10:57There?
10:58No?
10:59It's not that?
11:00Yes, that's it.
11:01Oh, beautiful!
11:02So,
11:03here we have the whole point.
11:04The two sides
11:05that we can
11:07go up together.
11:14After recovering
11:15all the flint heads,
11:16Law examines them
11:17under a microscope.
11:18Under the binoculars,
11:19we're going to see
11:20things like
11:21little lateral
11:23removements
11:24that are produced
11:25when the piece
11:27touched the body.
11:28What's wonderful is
11:30that we find it
11:31on archaeological pieces.
11:34So,
11:35there's a tongue
11:36called a fracture
11:37which is a fracture
11:38in the arch.
11:40This fracture
11:41is considered
11:42as typical
11:43of a fracture
11:44due to a violent shock.
11:46So,
11:47there's an element
11:48that serves as an arm.
11:49This piece
11:50is very, very important.
11:53The result
11:54of this experiment
11:55says two things.
11:56At the first,
11:58that we find
11:59the same fractures
12:01that I observed
12:02on archaeological pieces
12:04and the second thing
12:06of this experiment
12:07was to see
12:08the efficiency
12:09of these small elements
12:10during hunting.
12:11So,
12:12these small elements
12:13are very efficient.
12:18This experiment
12:19shows
12:20that the mysterious
12:21pointed objects
12:22found in the E-layer
12:23were hunting weapons.
12:25So,
12:26who were these
12:27technologically advanced
12:28hunters
12:29that frequented
12:30the Mondrain cave
12:3154,000 years ago?
12:33A study of other collections
12:36revealed that very similar heads
12:38were found at a site
12:39in Lebanon.
12:40So,
12:41the Homo sapiens
12:42groups at both the Mondrain
12:43and Lebanese sites
12:44were very close cousins.
12:45But how was it possible
12:52for a group of sapiens
12:53from the Eastern Mediterranean
12:54to other winds
13:12for a group of sapiens from the eastern Mediterranean to travel to Mondrain, some 4,000 km away.
13:19According to Ludovic, they may have come by sea.
13:24We don't have any intermediaries for the moment.
13:27Between the east of the Mediterranean and the Rhône valley,
13:30we don't have any intermediaries that would allow us to see a journey.
13:34But it's not impossible that these are purely maritime paths,
13:39as we have in Australia,
13:41because we know that if the population of the 55th, 60th or 65th millennia
13:47did not control the navigation perfectly,
13:50they could not colonize Australia.
13:55The study has revealed that Homo sapiens from the other side of the Mediterranean,
14:00armed with bows and arrowheads,
14:02occupied the Mondrain Cave around 54,000 years ago,
14:0612,000 years earlier than previously thought.
14:10Further insights into this extraordinary discovery were uncovered,
14:15thanks to a surprising find.
14:17It took years that when we were digging on the ground,
14:20we had some smells that seemed to come out of the ground.
14:23And these smells were very special,
14:26that was grilled.
14:27It felt grilled.
14:29But the smells of 50,000 years ago,
14:31we never saw that.
14:32Ludovic discovered that the surprising smells
14:35emanated from small stones that had broken away from the cave walls.
14:39It's very subtle.
14:40It could be…
14:41N'importe which one of these stones,
14:43we have literally millions of them.
14:45And we can see a very light,
14:47gray hole.
14:48It's a snowstorm.
14:49It's a fire made by a Neanderthalian
14:52more than 50,000 years ago.
14:54Each of these stones, at a moment,
14:56were at the ceiling on the ceiling,
14:58but we find them at the levels that are dated.
15:01And we can affirm that this stone,
15:03when I leave it from this wall,
15:05not only 50,000 years ago.
15:06And if she has 50,000 years ago,
15:07she follows her at least 50,000 years ago.
15:15The study of the small soot stones was entrusted
15:18to one of the young archaeologists at Mondrain.
15:22Ségolène van der Velde's task promised to be a difficult one,
15:27as the study of soot is very rare in archaeology.
15:41The trace of the soil are markers of human occupations.
15:44The humans come to the cave,
15:45they make fire,
15:46the soil will be placed on the walls,
15:48and this soil will be preserved by fine concrete concrete.
15:51So here we see a very fine concrete concrete
15:53that comes to prison and preserve the soil.
15:56On the naked eye,
15:57we see one single hole of soil,
15:58so we want to look at them at the microscope.
16:01For this, we are going to make thin lames.
16:03These thin lames are very thin,
16:06with 30 microns of thickness,
16:07which allow the concrete concrete to be transparent.
16:13The examination of these fragments of rock
16:16opens a window on tens of thousands of years of history.
16:20On the microscope, we will see the succession
16:25of a multitude of films of soil in the concrete.
16:29We will also see what we call calcite doublettes.
16:35We have the bigger crystals,
16:37which appear in a bit translucent,
16:39which are formed during the most humid periods.
16:41And then we have these black and white crystals,
16:44which are formed during more dry periods.
16:47The sample contains several thin layers,
16:52or films of soot, as well as calcite rock.
16:55The calcite is made up of alternate layers
16:58of large and small crystals.
17:01Each fragment was photographed.
17:03The films of soot noted and the calcite doublettes measured.
17:07The information is then converted into a diagram.
17:11So, from the photos that we have done in the microscope,
17:13we will document each of the films of soil.
17:21And so, each film of soil on the photo
17:23corresponds to one trait on the barcode.
17:29So, here we see that there are 4 films of soil
17:32and 4 films of soil,
17:34separated by a large space of calcite.
17:36And here we see the same thing on the barcode,
17:38where we have 4 films of soil,
17:39and 4 films of soil,
17:40separated by a large space.
17:42So, here we see all the different barcode
17:45that are synchronized together.
17:47So, this gives us a chronicle of synthetics
17:49of the E,
17:50with the most recent films of soil
17:53and the most ancient films.
17:55After establishing the Sapiens occupation dates
17:58in layer E,
18:00Segolen does the same
18:01for the Neanderthal occupations in layer F.
18:04So, the Sapiens replaced the Neanderthals very quickly.
18:07So, the Sapiens replaced the Neanderthals very quickly.
18:11Segolen would like to determine the length of time
18:14between their respective occupations.
18:16to do this, she is counting on a chemical element present in limestone,
18:19which is known to be annual.
18:21strontium.
18:22An experiment at the CEA's
18:26micro-spectrometry laboratory should provide her with this information.
18:29So, the Sapiens replaced the Neanderthals very quickly.
18:33Segolen would like to determine the length of time
18:36between their respective occupations.
18:38To do this, she is counting on a chemical element present in limestone,
18:43which is known to be annual, strontium.
18:46An experiment at the CEA's micro-spectrometry laboratory should provide her with this information.
18:56We'll do this, the area between the surface and the surface.
19:01Okay, that works.
19:03Today's challenge is to look at the variations of the concentration of strontium
19:08in our concrete concrete at the Mandrain.
19:11And we'll look at the signal that we know is annual
19:14to synchronize with the calcite doublettes that we observed at the microscope.
19:18Yeah, super.
19:20We'll find the zone of the last time.
19:22So, 460...
19:25460...
19:27460...
19:2873...
19:37Yeah, it's super.
19:38We really see the band there.
19:40And there...
19:41There's more strontium.
19:43Blanche and noire, right?
19:45Yeah, yeah.
19:46So, this is the zone that we analyzed.
19:49And if we superpose the data,
19:51we see really well the synchronization between the clear,
19:56enriching in strontium, and the sombre,
19:58where the doublettes calcite,
20:00they are really synchronized with this signal of strontium,
20:02which is annual.
20:03So, this means that we have an annual doublettes calcite annuals
20:05at the Mandrain.
20:06It's really great.
20:08We've been able to demonstrate
20:09that the time that separated the last Feu Neandertalian
20:12of the first Feu of Homo Sapiens in the cavity
20:15was one year, the maximum time.
20:18So, on this territory,
20:20we have a meeting,
20:21which is a physical, biological, cultural meeting,
20:24but it's not virtual.
20:25The high resolution record of the Mandrain cave occupations
20:30show that Homo Sapiens lived alongside Neanderthals
20:34for a few years, around 54,000 years ago,
20:38before leaving Mandrain and this riverbank for good.
20:41According to Ludovic,
20:43they may simply have moved to the opposite bank.
20:46He's observed that after the Homo Sapiens left,
20:50the flints that had always been found
20:52on both sides of the Rhône
20:54were only found on one side.
20:56And we see that the Silex are 50-50.
20:58If we are on the right of Rhône,
21:00we have 50% from the right of Rhône.
21:02And so, we are in a space that will unite the populations.
21:06And this will be true
21:08until the first Homo Sapiens,
21:10until the 54th millennium.
21:13But after this phase Homo Sapiens,
21:16it's sidérant
21:18because in fact,
21:19the populations
21:20will no longer cross the Rhône.
21:22And they will no longer cross the Rhône
21:24while the Rhône is an immense motorway gel,
21:26there is no physical border.
21:28We can propose
21:30at this moment
21:31that we are facing a real social border,
21:33that the groups in the opposite of Rhône
21:36will no longer be access to the groups of the other river.
21:43The appearance of Homo Sapiens
21:45around 54,000 years ago
21:47in the Mondrain cave
21:48has radically changed the story
21:50of their arrival in this part of Europe.
21:53After more than 15 years of digs,
21:56the archaeologists now want to explore outside the current cave,
22:13which 50,000 years ago was covered by a rock vault.
22:19This area is now protected by a plexiglass roof.
22:24This area is now protected by a plexiglass roof.
22:30This area is now protected by a rock vault.
22:33There are some pieces to remove there,
22:35here.
22:36Yes.
22:37There is also a beautiful fragment of the Aphyse.
22:41Here.
22:42Here.
22:43Here.
22:44Here.
22:45Here.
22:46Here.
22:47Here.
22:48Here.
22:49Here.
22:50Here.
22:51Here.
22:52Here.
22:53Here.
22:54Here.
22:55Here.
22:56Here.
22:57Here.
22:58Here.
22:59Here.
23:00Here.
23:01Here.
23:02Here.
23:03Here.
23:04Here.
23:05Here.
23:06Here.
23:07Here.
23:08Here.
23:09Here.
23:10Here.
23:11Here.
23:12Here.
23:13Here.
23:14Here.
23:15Here.
23:16Here.
23:17Here.
23:18Here.
23:19Here.
23:20Here.
23:21Here.
23:22Here.
23:23Here.
23:24Here.
23:25Here.
23:26Here.
23:27Ludovic was immediately struck by the Neanderthal character of these teeth and their remarkable state of preservation.
23:57In France, the last time we discovered a Neanderthal, it was in 1979, and immediately I said stop, on arrête tout, and on réfléchit.
24:12In fact, at the Grotte Mandrain, we tried to extract DNA for more than 10 years without finding anything.
24:19When we extracted these human vestiges, and in particular, there was a fragment of the molar which was separated from its molar,
24:26and I said, ah, it just came out of the soil, and we have to immediately send it to geneticists.
24:30So I sent it to Copenhagen.
24:37The Centre for Geogenetics in Copenhagen is one of the world's leading laboratories for ancient DNA.
24:45The investigation into the Neanderthal sample was led by Martin Sikora,
24:50assisted by Tarska Vanala, two specialists in paleogenetics.
24:56The first part of the investigation was entrusted to Ondane Sikora.
25:03She had the formidable task of extracting DNA from the badly damaged sample.
25:09The risk of losing precious genetic data is high.
25:16Extracting DNA from this ancient sample requires great care and a highly specialized procedure.
25:23The goal is to disoudre completely these fragments, to liberate the DNA molecules into the liquid.
25:30The other difficulty is that the ancient DNA is contaminated by other DNA, such as Sikora.
25:37soil bacteria.
25:38This forces Ondane to use an ingenious paleogenetic technique.
25:40This forces Ondane to use an ingenious paleogenetic technique.
25:47We used a technique of amsonage, which was synthesized by the human cells.
25:48We used to synthesize the molecular cells, to be able to synthesize the cells,
25:49so that it was an alien cell.
25:50The other difficulty is that the ancient DNA is contaminated by other DNA, such as soil bacteria.
25:51This forces Ondane to use an ingenious paleogenetic technique.
25:56that the ancient DNA is contaminated by other DNA,
25:59such as soil bacteria.
26:03This forces Ondane to use an ingenious
26:06paleogenetic technique.
26:26It's only on the human DNA.
26:28And then, with an element,
26:30we're going to have our DNA molecules
26:32that are fixed on our synthetic ARN.
26:34And this allows us to increase
26:36the amount of human DNA in our sample.
26:42Their mastery of these intricate paleogenetic techniques
26:46paid off.
26:47The DNA recovered was not complete,
26:49but it was of exceptional quality,
26:52especially for a Neanderthal.
26:54What I was really happy is when you told me that
26:59the way I proceeded in the lab
27:03somehow saved the sample,
27:05because it was super contaminated,
27:07and it was super damaged,
27:09and it was with super low endogenous content,
27:12so a super low percentage of human DNA.
27:14It looks really good and very positive.
27:17And we are lucky it's a male.
27:19So it has a Y chromosome.
27:20Exactly.
27:21And we don't have that many male Neanderthals represented.
27:31It didn't take long for the first results
27:33of the DNA analysis to reach the Mandrain Cave.
27:35From the moment when we found a certain number of ossements and dents,
27:43and we started to see the return of genetics,
27:47we knew that it was a male individual, a man.
27:50We wanted to give him a name.
27:52And I thought to Tolkien's writings,
27:54who was a very great philologist at the University of Oxford,
27:56and he created a character called Thorin.
27:59He was a Nain king,
28:01and he was one of the last Nain kings under the mountain.
28:04And in homage to Tolkien,
28:07and to his last Nain king,
28:08we were faced with the end of the line,
28:11and one of the last Neanderthals,
28:12which is now called Thorin.
28:14The jaw bones were entrusted to the Passia Laboratory
28:21at the University of Bordeaux.
28:25Clément Zanoli,
28:26a paleoanthropologist specialising in dental structure,
28:30was in charge of studying these precious remains,
28:33essentially teeth and jaw fragments.
28:44Each tooth was scanned with a micro-tomograph,
28:52providing extremely high-definition images
28:54of both tooth morphology and internal structure.
29:03Here we can see the shape in the face,
29:05with the crates on the side of the teeth,
29:08and the cingulum also,
29:09and the tuberculosis at the center,
29:11which is very marked here.
29:12So it's really a morphology characteristic
29:14of the Neanderthals.
29:16Clément Zanoli's initial investigations
29:18confirmed the geneticists' conclusions.
29:22This was indeed a Neanderthal.
29:24This wealth of material,
29:2631 teeth and several bone fragments,
29:28should enable us to learn a lot more about Thorin.
29:32So here we have a fragment
29:33of the inferior mace,
29:34the mandibule,
29:35which is broken.
29:36We just see the part with the prémolaire
29:39and the two molars.
29:40And we also found another part of this mandibule
29:44that we can visualize and put in place
29:45thanks to the micro-tomography.
29:48But thanks to the teeth that we have
29:49between the two,
29:49we know exactly the difference between the teeth.
29:54Clément had to assemble as many fragments as possible
29:56as possible to offer the most complete digital reconstruction
30:00of the individual.
30:05Clément Zanoli invited Dr. Esclason,
30:08professor at the Marseille School of Dental Medicine,
30:11to review this remarkable Neanderthal treasure.
30:14The reconstruction heathinhos
30:20of the mace of Thorin.
30:22Magnificent méons!
30:23Tell me what you ever at think!
30:24Because I would be curious to think of your opinion.
30:26I think this reconstruction gosh
30:28great and I'm surprised
30:32by the number of the ones found
30:34for a self-identality,
30:35especially Neanderthalian.
30:37The number of molaire
30:40You're like, you're all in the middle, right?
30:41Yeah, it's...
30:42You know, look, the adult dents are all sorties...
30:46Yeah, that's right.
30:48And I think that...
30:49Ah, it's a dent sur luminaire, so.
30:51Yeah, I think it's a dent sur luminaire.
30:53Yeah, it's incredible.
30:56It's 31 dents, in all.
30:59So, your eyes have a smile.
31:01Yeah.
31:02A priori, I think it was an adult, you know.
31:05The usage is quite advanced.
31:07And this usage, it's very regular.
31:11It's quite straight.
31:12It's quite flat.
31:13Yeah, it's incredible.
31:14It's flat, so it would have to be a curve,
31:17a curve of an occlusion convexes towards the bottom.
31:20We can even ask the question
31:21of the activities paramasticatory,
31:23in fact, non-alimentary.
31:25Is it not using, like a third hand,
31:27their dent in front,
31:28to hold an object
31:29and at the same time,
31:31to manipulate?
31:32Apparently, at the crown,
31:33there's no caries.
31:34And even at the interdentaire,
31:36I think there's no caries at all.
31:37In these very ancient populations,
31:39actually,
31:40all the dent are very used,
31:42but we have little caries,
31:44because the use is a kind of brushing.
31:48In the other hand,
31:50for modern men,
31:51it's the opposite.
31:52We have a lot of caries,
31:54while the dent is not so much used.
31:57Clément Zonoli's analysis of Thorin,
31:58has enriched the profile of this Neanderthal individual.
32:07Although very incomplete,
32:10it has made the archaeologists even more excited.
32:14Only about 15 Neanderthal individuals,
32:16this well documented,
32:18are known to us.
32:20in the area where Thorin's remains were found.
32:34The hope is to find more of his bones.
32:37Hundreds of artifacts have been unearthed,
32:47most of them small,
32:49numerous tiny bone fragments,
32:51and splint chips.
32:52And when we have small bits like that,
32:57we can't do the difference,
33:01no one can do the difference between
33:03a mammoth, a mouse or a human animal.
33:09To find out what these bone fragments are,
33:12and if they belong to Thorin,
33:14Ludovic uses a new technique developed
33:16at the University of Manchester,
33:18which can identify even the smallest bone fragment.
33:24Mike Buckley,
33:25the inventor of this formidable technique known as ZOOMS,
33:28recently received a package from the Mondrain Cave.
33:37A bag of tiny bone fragments.
33:41Thanks to ZOOMS,
33:42it should be possible to make the protein collagen
33:45found in bone tissue talk.
33:48One of the main benefits of looking at collagen
33:59as a target for what we analyze with ZOOMS
34:02is that it is a very stable protein
34:05that has retained its original signatures
34:09for these hundreds of thousands,
34:11if not millions of years.
34:13the samples undergo a series of treatments
34:15to extract collagen from the bone tissue.
34:16They are then prepared for the mass spectrometer.
34:20Okay, now here we are at the MALDI mass spectrometer.
34:21I just need to load in the target plate.
34:23The ZOOMS method enables Mike to make an inventory of all the species present in the samples.
34:26The ZOOMS method enables Mike to make an inventory of all the species present in the samples.
34:39It was really quite exciting when we analyzed just the first batch of around 400 samples.
34:54We saw a good amount of this aurochs, a bovine.
35:08We saw also a good amount of horse and deer, a much smaller amount of cave bear.
35:15But what was really interesting was that we had three samples that gave a hominin signature.
35:21And we can subject that to the radiocarbon dating process.
35:25The three human bone fragments identified by Mike Buckley
35:30are sent to Tom Hyam's radiocarbon dating laboratory in Oxford.
35:39Tom Hyam is a specialist in carbon-14 dating.
35:43So in radiocarbon dating we use a particle accelerator like this
35:47to measure single atoms of carbon-14.
35:50The more carbon-14, the more recent or modern something is.
35:54The less carbon-14, the older it gets.
35:56We can go back to a maximum age of about 50,000 years ago.
36:00But as we get back beyond 40,000 years ago,
36:04we have big challenges in getting the right date
36:07because of contamination that builds up in the bone and charcoal
36:11and other organic samples in these archaeological sites.
36:17The risk of carbon dating errors for bone fragments this age is real.
36:25When we first explored the radiocarbon date of Thorin,
36:29we got a date of around 41,000 years ago.
36:31Thorin is towards the end of the Neanderthal lineage,
36:34but he's not the latest Neanderthal.
36:36In Copenhagen, Tarska has completed a first phase of analysis of Thorin's genetic material.
36:47Here we have all the weeds that are sequenced for the mitochondrial genome.
36:51And we are actually getting a lot of weeds for each position of the mitochondrial genome.
36:56So that's very good.
36:57It allows us to get some higher certainty for our analysis.
37:02That's very good. Did you already make a tree to have a look at also?
37:06Yes, I have a tree. I have it right here.
37:09I'm using all the Neanderthals that we have data from.
37:12What's actually really interesting about these analyses is that Thorin is not clustering with the other Neanderthals,
37:19but actually he's actually grouped together with one other Neanderthal.
37:26Yeah, that's super interesting. So what is this closest term?
37:29The closest one is Mesmeskaya I.
37:31The dating of Mesmeskaya I is a little bit uncertain, but around 70,000-80,000 years old.
37:37So it's clearly not a late Neanderthal.
37:39So it's not a late Neanderthal, no.
37:40But one that he's sharing the most genetic variation with.
37:44Well, that's quite surprising, no? I mean, as far as we know, all the archaeological data points to a much more recent age.
37:50Exactly. It's like double the age of what we would have accepted.
37:53It's just a very crude analysis.
37:55Exactly, because I'm not using that many parameters here.
37:58I'm just counting the number of mutations that are different between the Neanderthals
38:03and then calculating the age based on that.
38:05We should have another look at trying some more models with, yeah.
38:10Yeah, and we should also talk to Ludovic about this because this really doesn't agree with what he has said about the dating.
38:17Yeah, I think they're not going to be too happy about that.
38:19Yes, according to the genetics, it's not a late Neanderthal, it's an early Neanderthal.
38:23Yeah.
38:24Thorin's genome is quite different to Western European Neanderthals dated to around 50,000 years ago.
38:31He is genetically closer to a Siberian individual dated to 80,000 years ago.
38:37This makes Thorin genetically isolated and much older than the archaeological layer where his bones were found,
38:44which is dated to 42,000 years ago.
38:47The first data in paleogenetics tells us Thorin 105 millionaires.
38:54It's impossible for us to position Thorin in the 105th millennium,
38:59and so there's a thing that closes.
39:01And as there's a thing that closes, we are, at this moment,
39:05forced to try to get a direct datation of this individual.
39:11The dating to 105,000 years ago threw the team into turmoil.
39:20Tom Hyam decided to go back to Thorin's dating.
39:23The first time we used this method to radiocarbon date Thorin,
39:30we got a date that was just over 41,000 years ago.
39:33But we could see there was a potential problem with the sample.
39:37We had some indications in the chemistry that it wasn't quite right,
39:41and so we asked for more material to see if we could radiocarbon date the sample again.
39:46And fortunately, there was more material, a single piece of bone that we could date,
39:51and using this material, we were able to date the sample not once, not twice,
39:55but three times to make sure we absolutely had the right date.
39:59And all of the results that we got were statistically the same.
40:03And they indicated that the sample was more than 48,000 years old.
40:10Back in Copenhagen, the geneticists discovered that the genome of a Neanderthal from Gibraltar,
40:16recently made public, displayed very strong parallels to Thorin.
40:22Hi Ludwig, how's it going?
40:25Nice to see you.
40:26Nice to see you.
40:27Hope all is well.
40:28So we have some quite nice new results in terms of the relationship of Thorin
40:33with some of the other Neanderthal genomes we've been looking at.
40:36We do find some similarities with Iberian Neanderthals,
40:39in particular these ones from Gibraltar, from the Forbes query site.
40:42So I mean, maybe Tarska can elaborate a bit more again on what exactly we're finding.
40:46Yeah, so what we are finding from our DNA analysis is that Thorin is very similar to these early Neanderthals.
40:54So the Neanderthals that lived around 100,000 years ago,
40:57and not so much like the late Neanderthals, the ones that lived around 40,000, 50,000 years ago,
41:03which is very interesting because that was not what we had expected to see.
41:07The issue with the Forbes query is that we don't actually have confident dating of the remains.
41:13We just have a genetic profile.
41:16Now we have something that match with the Thorin population,
41:19but Forbes query was excavated in the middle of the 19th century.
41:24There is no true archaeological context, but as far as I remember, yes,
41:30they proposed an age and they are talking of something from 80 to 100,000.
41:35With this group of Neanderthals, we have nothing to actually calibrate with,
41:39and that means there are some uncertainties in our molecular clock estimates.
41:43Do you think you could use the Thorin data to try to calibrate the Forbes query data?
41:50This is exactly what's interesting because Thorin is closer to the early Neanderthals,
41:55then we could use your dating from the layers as a calibration.
42:00So we can put in that Thorin is 45,000 to 50,000 years old,
42:05and then we can see, well, do we get any different estimates for the surrounding Neanderthals
42:11that have a similar genetic profile as Thorin.
42:15This changed a lot of what we understand about the late Neanderthals,
42:20because if I follow you well,
42:22fourth query in the southern Spain and the Turin population should be one population,
42:28and this population is deeply divergent with the late Neanderthals.
42:33So if you're right, we could draw a Mediterranean population
42:38that goes from southern Spain to the Round Valley, so something huge.
42:42That would be interesting because that would suggest that we have one population staying in one place,
42:47not interacting with any of the new Neanderthals coming in.
42:52I don't know how likely that would be.
42:54In terms of DNA, from scary and Turin should be the same age.
43:00Yeah, I mean, it would point to that, right?
43:02It could be part of the same meta-population if you want.
43:06And so we would have a process of isolation between Neanderthal populations
43:10and that would also fit very well with your genetic data
43:14that show that there's a question of isolation.
43:17Yeah, no, absolutely.
43:18I think this is definitely something we should try, right?
43:20So I think that's, yeah, it would be very nice.
43:23And it would be a cool story.
43:26Fantastic one.
43:28The archaeologists also await the results of a new direct dating study of Thorin,
43:38carried out by Renaud Johannes Boyot of Australia's Southern Cross University.
43:44Hi, Renaud. How's it going?
43:49Good. How are you, Tom?
43:50Yeah, great.
43:51As you know, we have a kind of difficult, challenging situation at the moment here.
43:56We've got the radiocarbon dates we've done on Thorin,
43:59which are very consistent in telling us that the radiocarbon age is around 49,000 years ago.
44:07But the genetic estimates for the age of the mitochondrial lineage are estimated to go back much, much earlier than that.
44:15More than 100,000 years, perhaps even 120,000 years.
44:18That's where you come in and your techniques of ESR and uranium series dating.
44:23So we have the results already.
44:25We conducted some ablation around the enamel and the dentine.
44:30Looking at the diffusion of uranium inside the tooth,
44:34what we can say is we have a minimum age of about 43,000 years ago.
44:40Wow.
44:41Yeah, the problem with the uranium series is, of course, it's a minimum age.
44:44Yes.
44:45So one could argue that it would be actually much older.
44:47Right.
44:48What we do is we measure how much radiation, radioactivity, has been received by the enamel.
44:53And that gives us an intensity of the signal.
44:56And that intensity, we translate that in years.
44:59And we have an age of 48,000 plus or minus four.
45:02Oh, brilliant.
45:03So that brackets the age, either it's older than 43 and younger than 48, right?
45:08And younger than 52.
45:10Oh, wow.
45:11Wow.
45:12Wow.
45:13That's brilliant.
45:14That's really exactly where I'd hoped that the results would sit.
45:17But what's clear is that it's very, very different from the estimate on the mitochondrial DNA and the other genetic data.
45:24So it looks as though Thorin is in the last few thousand years of the Neanderthal lineage in Europe.
45:31We know that European Neanderthals disappear between 39,000 to 40,000 years ago.
45:35So he's around 10,000 years older than that, plus or minus a couple of thousand.
45:39Mm-hmm.
45:40Thorin is now considered a late Neanderthal.
45:49The same goes for his closest cousin from Forbes Quarry.
45:53These Mediterranean Neanderthals, isolated for over 50,000 years, form a completely new Neanderthal population.
46:02Our geneticists, they were absolutely convinced that this person could not have less than 105 million years.
46:08So repositioning it in time and putting it in a statistical model, it was 7 years of work.
46:13And these 7 years of research have allowed, at the end, to certify that the archaeology methods and our human reasoning
46:21had been more robust and more valid than all the palaeogenetics and biomolecular methods.
46:31Finally certain of Thorin's age and that his closest relative is in Gibraltar,
46:36Ludovic traveled to the southernmost tip of Europe.
46:41He was eager to compare his thoughts with those of the archaeologist Clive Finleason,
46:46who has been leading research there for the past three decades.
46:50So this is the famous Gibraltar I skull, Neanderthal skull, from Forbes Quarry, found in 1848.
47:02And this is the one that recently had DNA extracted from it.
47:07It's very, almost miraculous.
47:09Yeah.
47:10If you look at it, to me, it looks very greysel compared to some of the other Neanderthals.
47:14I know they've got the large eye sockets, they all have that, and the large nose.
47:17But really, in terms of Brow Ridge, it's quite a grey cell Neanderthal.
47:22We know that the skull can be more than 45,000 to 50,000.
47:26Well, I'm going to let you on a secret here.
47:29We found the levels where we think the skull was found, we're quite sure.
47:34And we've dated it with the uranium thorium above and below.
47:37And it's sandwiched in between 60,000 and 40,000 years ago.
47:43Ludovic was delighted to learn this, as it confirmed that the Neanderthal at Forbes Quarry was roughly the same age as Thorin.
47:51Clive took his visitor to the impressive Gorham and Vanguard cave complex.
47:58So here we are. This is, you're going to see Vanguard cave.
48:01And Gorham's cave is around the back.
48:04We're in the southernmost tip of Europe.
48:08What you see over there is the coast of North Africa.
48:11It's very, very near.
48:13Come to the lost world, as I like to call it.
48:22People Neanderthals lived here for maybe 100,000 years.
48:28Welcome to Vanguard cave.
48:30Whoa!
48:32The huge cave.
48:34Fantastic.
48:35Just like the Mondrain cave, the remains of Neanderthal occupations have been extraordinarily well preserved by the continually drifting sand.
48:54If we make a reconstitution of what was the landscape in that time period by 50,000 years ago, 60,000, so the sea was lower.
49:07During that period, the sea level can drop to a maximum of 120, but it's really, the average may be minus 80 meters for a long time.
49:16The coast is four kilometers away.
49:18It's not dense woodland. It's open with trees, and you have these lakes.
49:23Now we have genetic connections.
49:25Yeah.
49:26The population we have here in Gibraltar are the population we are in Mediterranean France.
49:31Yeah.
49:32Well, that's very exciting for us to hear that.
49:34But for me, it was music to my ears to hear what is going on with the genetics.
49:38It's a wonderful connection to have.
49:40What we see is that these populations are the same.
49:43They're genetically the same population, and they are isolated by most of the European classic Neanderthals for a very long time.
49:52We know that Neanderthals were mixing with other Neanderthals and with other modern humans sometimes, and so on.
49:59So it's not that they weren't capable or didn't want to.
50:02Yeah.
50:03There must have been some other kind of barrier.
50:04Exactly.
50:05Which perhaps was a biogeographical ecological barrier, maybe then supported by maybe cultural barriers.
50:12What is important, we see the landscape.
50:15We are facing cliffs along the sea, and a lot of mountains, very high mountains.
50:20My feeling is that what we may be looking at here is a corridor which connects, maybe it's counterintuitive, but it connects from here to France on the Mediterranean coast.
50:32The Mediterranean Sea was 100 meters lower during this ice age, allowing people to travel along the coasts of Spain, France and Italy.
50:44It was possible to travel from Gibraltar to Mondrain along this coastal corridor.
50:49Now we know that this Neanderthal world is much more complex than what we thought.
50:54And it's not the question of two populations, it's at least three.
50:57And so we should have the classic Neanderthal, we should have the Moussapias of course, and then we should have this Mediterranean population.
51:03Population.
51:04On which we didn't know anything a year ago.
51:07And we need to start looking at this new world of the Neanderthals.
51:11When we came down into the cave, I said, welcome to the lost world.
51:16I didn't really realize that it wasn't just this cave I'm talking about, that all that, in many ways, is a lost world.
51:24This makes a lot of sense, and this is very rich for the future, I think.
51:29At the moment we're in the verge of a change of paradigm, I think.
51:34We just open a window.
51:35Absolutely.
51:41The Mondrain Cave is a long way from revealing all of its secrets.
51:46But several major discoveries have been made.
51:49The arrival of the first sapiens in Western Europe has been brought forward by more than 10,000 years.
51:56For the first time, a genuine encounter between our species, the sapiens, and the Neanderthals has been proven to have occurred here.
52:05And incredibly, Thorin's discovery revealed a brand new Neanderthal population.
52:11Isolated for 60,000 years on the shores of the Mediterranean.
52:18Who are we? Where do we come from? Our origins? Our evolution? The story of us, more dramatic than we could ever imagine, is revealed through cutting-edge science.
52:43Human on BBC iPlayer.
52:46.
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