The oldest human settlement in Europe is located in Transcarpathia.

Until now, the oldest human settlement in Europe was considered to be a settlement in Spain, but it turned out that the Korolevo site is older. This was found out by a team of Czech and Ukrainian scientists using new methods in applied nuclear physics.

A new study proves that the oldest known human settlement in Europe is located near the city of Korolevo in western Ukraine. This was proven by an international group of scientists with Czech experts from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (AV ČR). Until now, the oldest inhabited place was considered to be a settlement in Spain. A study published in the journal Nature shows that the first humans colonized Europe from southeast to west.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Royal Parking Lot. Recent advances in mathematical modeling, combined with applied nuclear physics, have made it possible to accurately date the samples.

First upright man

Previous studies have dated the first settlement on the European continent in the Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain, between 1.2 and 1.1 million years ago. However, modern research has confirmed that the settlement in modern Transcarpathia existed 200-300 thousand years earlier. The settlement in Korolev, near Ukraine's borders with Hungary and Romania, is also interesting because it is the northernmost manifestation of the world's known species of upright man called Homo erectus, the study notes.

The published results change the way we look at the migration routes of the so-called first Europeans. "Our earliest ancestor, Homo erectus, was the first to leave Africa about two million years ago and head for the Middle East, Asia and Europe. Radiometric dating of the first settlement in Korolev not only fills the large spatial gap between Georgia and Spain with the oldest territories to date. It also confirms the hypothesis that the first wave of European settlement penetrated from east to west," the study's lead author, Roman Garba of the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, summed up the findings.

A unique archaeological site disappears under a quarry

The archaeological site in Korolev is significant on a pan-European scale. "We know that the layer of blown loess (continental soil-forming rock sedimentary rock) and paleosoil here reaches a depth of up to 14 meters and contains thousands of stone tools. Korolevo was an important source of raw materials for their production," said Ukrainian archaeologist and co-author of the study Vitaliy Usyk, who participated in the excavations in Korolevo and now works at the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. "The seven time periods of the settlement are represented at the specific place studied. Although at least nine different Paleolithic cultures have been recorded at the site: people lived here from the earliest era to the period before 30,000 years ago," he added.

Archaeologists and anthropologists have been able to confirm their hypotheses with the knowledge and technological capabilities of nuclear physics and geophysical sciences. Samples of boulders from the Korolevo site were chemically treated and measured by scientists from the Czech Republic and Germany at the research institute of the Helmholtz Center. Then, using new dating calculations, scientists from the Institute of Geophysics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic determined the age of the samples.

The archaeological site of Korolevo is unique in the history of waves of settlement over the past 1.4 million years. "Such a site deserves to be included in the World Heritage List. And we would like to start negotiations and work on the necessary documentation, including a plan for its protection. It is located in the area of a quarry with active andesite mining," Garba said.

About Korolevo

The archaeological site of Korolevo is located near the cities of Khust and Vynohradiv in Transcarpathia. Between 1920 and 1938, the town of Korolevo was part of the former Czechoslovakia, in the Czech way it was called Kraljevo nad Tisou. It was an important railway junction between Czechoslovakia and Romania. The first discoveries of Early Stone Age settlements here were made by the Czechoslovak archaeologist Josef Skutil. However, the opening of the Royal Parking Lot took place in 1974. The site was explored by the expedition of the Archaeological Museum of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. Excavations of the Royal Site were carried out under the guidance of Kyiv archaeologist Vladislav Gladilin from 1975 to 1992. Isolated archaeological excavations are still being carried out. The archaeological site is located on the territory of the local crushed stone plant.

The new research was carried out on the basis of a contract between the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, signed in 2021. The project was supported by the European Commission, the Ministry of Education, the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic and the Grant Agency of Charles University.