3 ms·
> The cool and dry conditions in the cave have made it possible for scientists to recover preserved DNA left behind by ancient Denisovans, Neanderthals and huma
by throw0101c 2y ago
> The cool and dry conditions in the cave have made it possible for scientists to recover preserved DNA left behind by ancient Denisovans, Neanderthals and humans, all of whom occupied the cave at different times over 40,000 years.
That's a long time to have people live in a particular area generally, and a particular "home" in particular.
AIUI, some of the oldest writing we have dates to Ur III at 2000 BC, so that's 'only' 4000 years ago, or perhaps the Uruk period, which at 3500 BC, is 5500 years old:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_documents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_documents
* https://www.sfu.ca/~poitras/jesho_UR_14.pdf https://www.sfu.ca/~poitras/jesho_UR_14.pdf
So the oldest document(s) we have are only about 1/10th how long this cave was occupied.
Some of these time scales are mind-boggling.