Oldest evidence of humans in Greece is 700,000 years old, a quarter of a million years older than previous record

Published

2 years ago

June 12, 2023

admin

Several prehistoric sites in Greece reveal that our human ancestors hunted hippos and elephants between 280,000 and 700,000 years ago. The oldest site pushes back the earliest known hominin presence in the region by up to 250,000 years.

It’s not clear which ancient hominin (a term that includes humans and our ancestors) used the site, but researchers suspect it was archaic Homo sapiens.

Sitting about 124 miles (200 kilometers) southwest of Athens, the Megalopolis Basin in Arcadia hosts one of the largest lignite mines in Greece. Although archaeologists have known for decades that the site harbored ancient fossils, little targeted excavation had been carried out. Recently, though, the Hellenic Ministry of Culture & Sports and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens launched a five-year excavation to better understand the context of the Megalopolis sites.

Mining activity revealed five new sites in the basin, which “exposed the fossil-bearing sediments to a much greater depth, thus revealing older remains,” Katerina Harvati, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Tübingen in Germany and co-project lead, told Live Science in an email.

Related: Back to the Stone Age: 17 key milestones in Paleolithic life

The most recent site, Choremi 7, dating to around 280,000 years ago, yielded stone tools as well as deer bones with evidence of cut marks. Tripotamos 4, at 400,000 years old, had a large concentration of stone tools and evidence of new methods of stone working compared to older sites. These sites are important for understanding the technological development of the Lower Paleolithic period (3.3 million to 300,000 years ago), according to a statement from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture & Sport.

At a site called Marathousa 2 dating to 450,000 years ago, the researchers discovered evidence that ancient human relatives were killing and presumably eating hippopotamuses, as part of a hippo skeleton had stone tool cut marks on it. A nearby site, Marathousa 1, shows evidence of elephant butchering.

An ancient deer skull, as found at Kyparissia site 4. (Image credit: Copyright YPPOA (Greek Culture Ministry))

“The cut marked hippopotamus bones from Marathousa 2, which were also found together with a lithic artifact, are the only such findings from the Middle Pleistocene of southeast Europe,” Harvati said. The team found that megafaunal exploitation was likely common during this time period.

A surface survey showing the artificial levels of the Megalopolis lignite mine in Greece. (Image credit: Copyright YPPOA (Greek Culture Ministry))

About 230 feet (70 meters) below the surface, the team discovered the site of Kyparissia 4. Dating to 700,000 years ago, it is the oldest archaeological site from the Lower Palaeolithic era in Greece. The researchers found numerous stone tools as well as remains of extinct species of giant deer, hippo, rhino, elephant and macaque. When glaciers covered much of Europe during a major ice age between 500,000 and 300,000 years ago, this region would have been ice-free.

The sites Kyparissia 3 and 4 in the stratigraphic sequence of the lignites. (Image credit: Copyright YPPOA (Greek Culture Ministry))

“Our research reconstructing the paleoenvironment of the basin has indicated that it would have functioned as a refugium during Ice Age conditions,” Harvati said, “allowing animal and plant populations — but also hominin groups — to survive during harsh glacial times when they would have disappeared from more northern parts of the European continent.”RELATED STORIES—150-year-old mystery of strange half-circles from Paleolithic site in France finally solved

—See the striking facial reconstruction of a Paleolithic woman who lived 31,000 years ago

—25,000-year-old human DNA discovered on Paleolithic pendant from Siberian cave

The “outstanding and highly unusual preservation conditions” in the Megalopolis basin mean that the team is recovering not only stone tools and fossils but also remains of small animals, wood, plant remains and even insects, according to Harvati. The basin has provided evidence that spans almost the entire middle Pleistocene, an important discovery considering southeastern Europe is relatively unexplored for this time period.

“The Megalopolis basin therefore provides a crucial piece of the puzzle of human evolution in Europe,” Harvati said.

Politics

Met Police chief ‘frustrated’ at planned protest to support Palestine Action – as government moves to ban the group

Published

55 mins ago

June 23, 2025

admin

Met Police chief 'frustrated' at planned protest to support Palestine Action - as government moves to ban the group

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley says he is “shocked and frustrated” at a planned protest in support of Palestine Action.

The demonstration, due to take place in Westminster later, comes as the government moves to ban the group under anti-terror laws.

Activists from Palestine Action hit the headlines last week after targeting RAF Brize Norton and damaging two military aircraft in a significant security breach.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will update MPs on the move to proscribe the organisation, which would make it a criminal offence to belong to or support it.

Sir Mark said that – until this happens – the force has “no power in law” to prevent the protest from taking place, but lawbreakers will be “dealt with robustly”.

He added: “This is an organised extremist criminal group, whose proscription as terrorists is being actively considered.

“Members are alleged to have caused millions of pounds of criminal damage, assaulted a police officer with a sledgehammer and last week claimed responsibility for breaking into an airbase and damaging aircraft.

“Multiple members of the group are awaiting trial accused of serious offences.”

He added that – while the right to protest is essential – “actions in support of such a group go beyond what most would see as a legitimate protest”.

Over the weekend, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said he could not rule out the possibility of a foreign power being behind Palestine Action.

Any move to proscribe the group must be debated and approved by MPs and peers.

Speaking to Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News, former justice secretary Lord Charlie Falconer suggested that vandalising aircraft would not solely provide legal justification for such a move.

Lord Falconer said: “I am not aware of what Palestine Action has done beyond the painting of things on the planes in Brize Norton, they may have done other things I didn’t know.

“But generally, that sort of demonstration wouldn’t justify proscription so there must be something else that I don’t know about.”

Palestine Action has staged a series of protests in recent months – spraying the offices of Allianz Insurance in London, and vandalising Donald Trump’s golf course in Ayrshire.

US

Regime change: Is Trump about to ‘Make Iran Great Again’?

Published

55 mins ago

June 23, 2025

admin

Regime change: Is Trump about to 'Make Iran Great Again'?

👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈

The US bombs Iran. Three nuclear sites heavily hit. Cue condemnation from Iran – and promises of retribution.

As the Iranian foreign minister heads to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin and discuss what to do next, we ask: what has happened, why did the Trump administration decide to take action, what’s the response domestically and internationally – and what on earth could happen next.

If you’ve got a question you’d like the Trump100 team to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.

Don’t forget, you can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.

US

The Americans want the attack on Iran’s nuclear sites to be a ‘one-and-done’

Published

55 mins ago

June 23, 2025

admin

The Americans want the attack on Iran's nuclear sites to be a 'one-and-done'

The Pentagon briefing was big on what happened but short on detail of what happens next.

Neither defence secretary Pete Hegseth nor General Dan “Raisin” Caine, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, can answer that.

Mr Hegseth called the bombing an “incredible and overwhelming success” with “focused and clear” instructions from President Trump.

The focus now is on what follows and that’s not so clear.

The briefing laid out the details of the military deception plan behind Operation Midnight Hammer.

B-2 stealth aircraft were flown west towards the Pacific on Saturday as a decoy, while the B-2s with bunker-busting bombs on board flew east towards Iran.

Israel-Iran live: World continues to react to US attack on nuclear facilities

Mr Hegseth called it a plan that took months and weeks of positioning and came down, in the end, to “precision, misdirection and operational security”.

Gen Caine, Mr Trump’s top military man, offered a measured assessment. While Mr Trump had spoken of Iran’s nuclear sites being “obliterated”, Gen Caine revised that downwards when he spoke of “extremely severe damage”.

Full battle damage assessment will reveal the complete picture – only then can the mission’s success be measured in full, mindful that Iran had shifted at least some of its enriched uranium in the days before the strike.

On the politics of it, Mr Hegseth said this wasn’t about regime change in Iran. It might offer precious little reassurance to Tehran, particularly as he also said part of the operation was to defend Israel and the ongoing defence of Israel.

If the US is tethered to Israel’s interests to the extent of an unprecedented attack on Iran, where does its influence end?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared almost giddy in response to the US attack. He is a PM strengthened by Mr Trump’s spectacular response to his rhetoric around Iran.

Suspicions weren’t softened around Netanyahu’s influence over Mr Trump when Mr Hegseth was asked about the basis for the attack. He has long lobbied the US president on Iran being close to building a nuclear bomb, contrary to American intelligence which indicates otherwise.

Mr Hegseth was asked what was the new intelligence, was it American or from other countries? He avoided a direct answer, saying only that Mr Trump had looked at all the intelligence information and concluded Iran was a threat.

There were a number of questions about what comes next, with an assortment of non-answers in response from Mr Hegseth.

A consistent line was that the US wanted Iran to negotiate peace, coupled with the threat of further aggression if it doesn’t.

The US defence secretary said Washington was in touch with Tehran privately and publicly, giving it every opportunity to come to the table, every opportunity for peace.

He made the point that America hadn’t targeted Iranian troops or civilians – clearly, a measure by the US to limit response and leave open a door.

The Americans want this attack to have been a “one-and-done”.

The scenario it’s left with, however, is an Iran talking of a diplomatic door closed and sending its foreign minister travelling to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin.

Iran is wounded, no doubt. Combined attacks have left it degraded and, without a network of support in the Middle East, its ability to strike back is limited. For now, if not necessarily forever.

Donald Trump clearly enjoyed the sugar rush of military success but he will be wary of the come-down and all of its uncertainties.

In circumstances with world implications, he won’t be alone.