The arrival of Homo sapiens in the Near East and Europe

Homo sapiens evolved in Africa during the late Middle Pleistocene, dispersed to South-East and East Asia at c. 100 ka BP, and only at c. 50 ka BP crossed the gates of Europe. Thus far, the European archaeological data suggest consecutive waves of migrations of H. sapiens from the Levant and both along the Danube River and the Mediterranean coast. The earliest dispersal reached Bulgaria and Moravia as well as southern Europe at ~  47–44 ka BP, whereas another wave diffused rapidly between ~  44 and 42 ka BP to Central Europe and the Western Mediterranean. In concomitance of these migrations, new cultural behaviours emerged in the European territories and, at ~  41–39 ka BP, Neanderthals, the autochthonous European population, demised. The foremost consequence of these displacements in different territories and environments is that H. sapiens lasted as the only human species on Earth.