Isidor Feinstein Stone tools created half a million years in what is now Poland were probably the work of an extinct hominid specie calledHomo heidelbergensis , thought to be thelast coarse ancestorof Neanderthals and innovative man . antecedently , researchers were incertain if human beings had made it to central Europe by this distributor point in history , so the fresh discovery may shed newfangled light on the chronology of our enlargement across the realm .

“ Peopling of Central Europe by Middle Pleistocene hominid is highly disputable , mainly due to the comparatively harsh climatic and environmental stipulation that involve cultural and anatomic adjustments , ” explain the authors of a new study on the artefact . In special , they notice that evidence of human occupation northward of the Carpathian Mountains during this period is extremely scarce , primarily thanks to the difficultness that ancient hominid would have faced when attempting to cross the range .

The shaft that may reshape this narration were found in the Tunel Wielki cave , just north of Kraków . First excavated in the sixties , the cave hold in traces of human occupation that were originally thought to be no more than 40,000 years old .

However , after noting that some of the animate being remains within the cave appear to be hundreds of M of class old , archaeologists make up one’s mind to render to the site in 2018 . Digging deeper into the dirt than former excavations had gone , the research worker found stratum of sediment that stop the finger cymbals of animals that endure between 450,000 and 550,000 age ago .

Among these were several large extinct carnivores , including the “ the immenseLycaon lycaonoides ” – a large species of wild dog that vanish from cardinal Europe around 400,000 years ago . Other dread ancient piranha such as the Eurasiatic jaguar , the Mosbach Friedrich August Wolf , and a case of cave bear calledUrsus deningeriwere all regain to have occupied the cavern during this geological era too .

Most interestingly , however , the researchers uncovered 40flint artifactswithin the same bed of sediment , indicating that these tools were bring forth during this same full point in history . Their years , therefore , intimate that they were likely made byH. heidelbergensis , which occupied other sites across Europe at this clock time .

However , while other nearby human moving in sites from the time were open - air settlements , this is the first to be located within a cave .

“ We were surprised that half a million age ago people in this orbit stayed in caves , because those were not the best position to camp , ” explain study author Małgorzata Kot in astatement . “ wet and low temperature would discourage that . On the other hand , a cave is a natural protection . It is a closed space that gives a sense of security . We found traces that may indicate that the people who stayed there used fire , which likely help oneself tame these colored and dampish place . ”

While these finding imply that humans had indeed penetrate the Carpathians by about 500,000 years ago , Kot said that they likely would n’t have been able to live on at high latitudes than Tunel Wielki . “ It is rather unbelievable that they go farther north , ” she explained . “ We are probably on the northern limit of their natural selection . ”

The researchers now trust to confirm their premiss by findingH. heidelbergensisbones at the Tunel Wielki site . Unfortunately , they have as yet been unable to identify the hominid remains within the cave because the familial material they contain has not live on .

The report was published in the journalScientific Reports .