NEARLY 55,000 years ago, a group of migrants reached a lofty rock shelter over-looking the Rhône River in what is now southern France. Though pelted by the dusty mistral winds, the alcove offered a sweeping view of the river valley, where bison herds and other game roamed. These newcomers, a small number of Homo sapiens, lit a fire and decided to stay. Some began hammering hunks of flint, knocking free pieces to use as tools and weapons. Deft with their strikes, the flintknappers fashioned a stockpile of tiny triangular points destined to become arrowheads. These modern humans were likely the first people armed with bows and arrows in Europe and the lone representatives of their species at a time when Neanderthals dominated the continent. Neanderthals camped in the same cave hundreds of times across a 40,000-year span—and probably at least once in the very year before H. sapiens first visited. The modern humans, on the other hand, only used the cave for one or two generations. It would be another 10,000 years before H. sapiens established a permanent foothold in Europe and 2,000 more after that until any returned to the rock shelter, now known as Grotte Mandrin.
Though the visitors’ stay was ephemeral, evidence of a modern human presence and of bow-and-arrow technology in Europe at this early date and . More than a century of research examining fossils, artifacts, and ancient DNA has buttressed the conclusion that modern humans emerged in Africa around 300,000 years ago, spread to Eurasia, and replaced other human species, including Neanderthals, by about 40,000 years ago. But debates rage over how the newly arrived managed to supplant Neanderthals, who had survived in Ice Age Europe for roughly 200,000 years thanks to physiques adapted for the cold, knowledge of the terrain, and development of weapons suited to hunting local fauna. Many explanations have been proposed for Neanderthals’ extinction, with some scholars suggesting that modern humans developed superior technology featuring aerodynamic stone points that could be attached to throwing spears, allowing them to kill from a distance. Neanderthals, in contrast, clung to their own culture, which was characterized by hefty stone tools that could cap thrusting spears but not projectile weapons. The use of archery by either group was rarely considered, as Europe’s earliest fragments of bows and arrows were uncovered at sites less than 12,000 years old.
