Our first steps to Europe: Pleistocene Homo sapiens dispersals, adaptations and interactions in South-East Europe

Project Information

FIRSTSTEPS

Grant agreement ID: 101019659

DOI

10.3030/101019659

EC signature date 5 July 2021

Start date 1 April 2022

End date 31 March 2027

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 3 306 062,00

EU contribution

€ 3 306 062,00

Coordinated by

EBERHARD KARLS UNIVERSITAET TUEBINGEN
Germany

CORDIS provides links to public deliverables and publications of HORIZON projects.

Links to deliverables and publications from FP7 projects, as well as links to some specific result types such as dataset and software, are dynamically retrieved from OpenAIRE .

Publications

Peer reviewed articles (34)

Humanlike manual activities in Australopithecus

Author(s): Jana Kunze, Katerina Harvati, Gerhard Hotz, Fotios Alexandros Karakostis
Published in: Journal of Human Evolution, Issue 196, 2024, Page(s) 103591, ISSN 0047-2484
Publisher: Academic Press
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103591

The morphological affinities of the fossil cranium from Kabua, Kenya

Author(s): Abel Marinus Bosman, Laura Tabitha Buck, Hugo Reyes‐Centeno, Marta Mirazón Lahr, Chris Stringer, Rainer Grün, Qingfeng Shao, Katerina Harvati
Published in: Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2026, ISSN 1359-0987
Publisher: Royal Anthropological Institute
DOI: 10.1111/1467-9655.70137

Merging morphological and genetic evidence to assess hybridization in Western Eurasian late Pleistocene hominins.

Author(s): Harvati K., Ackermann R.R.
Published in: Nature Ecology & Evolution, Issue Volume 6, 2022, Page(s) 1573-1585, ISSN 2397-334X
Publisher: Nature Springer
DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01875-z

The role of the Eastern Mediterranean in human evolution: recent results from Greece

Author(s): Katerina Harvati
Published in: Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2026, ISSN 1359-0987
Publisher: Royal Anthropological Institute
DOI: 10.1111/1467-9655.70138

Grotta della Lea, a new Early Epigravettian site in southern Italy (Uluzzo Bay)

Author(s): Giulia Marciani, Antonino Vazzana, Owen Alexander Higgins, Ivan Martini, Gabriele Terlato, Simone Severi, Sara Silvestrini, Matteo Romandini, Gruppo Speleologico Neretino, Francesco Berna, Francesco Iacono, Lucio Calcagnile, Gianluca Quarta, Adriana Moroni, Stefano Benazzi
Published in: Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, Issue 63, 2026, Page(s) 105064, ISSN 2352-409X
Publisher: Elsevier BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105064

Virtual reconstruction and analysis of the face of DFN3-150 Paradolichopithecus aff. arvernensis specimen from Dafnero, Greece

Author(s): Stylianos Koutalis, Carolin Röding, Gildas Merceron, Franck Guy, Dimitris S. Kostopoulos, Katerina Harvati
Published in: Scientific Reports, Issue 16, 2026, ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-51595-8

Local environment and fire history of a potential Lower Palaeolithic refugium in the Megalopolis Basin, southern Greece, during Marine Isotope Stage 12

Author(s): Styliani Kyrikou, Elena Marinova, Ines J.E. Bludau, Panagiotis Karkanas, Eleni Panagopoulou, Vangelis Tourloukis, Annett Junginger, Katerina Harvati
Published in: Quaternary Research, Issue 128, 2026, Page(s) 71-90, ISSN 0033-5894
Publisher: Academic Press
DOI: 10.1017/qua.2024.59

Comparative 3D Shape Analysis of the Iwo Eleru Mandible, Nigeria

Author(s): Harvati, Katerina; Stringer, Chris; Folorunso, Caleb Adebayo
Published in: PaleoAnthropology, Issue 2024:1, 2024, Page(s) 99-111, ISSN 1545-0031
Publisher: Paleoanthropology Society, European Society for the Study of Human Evolution
DOI: 10.48738/2024.iss1.1052

The Late Early–Middle Pleistocene Mammal Fauna from the Megalopolis Basin (Peloponnese, Greece) and Its Importance for Biostratigraphy and Paleoenvironment

Author(s): George E. Konidaris, Athanassios Athanassiou, Vangelis Tourloukis, Krystalia Chitoglou, Thijs van Kolfschoten, Domenico Giusti, Nicholas Thompson, Georgia Tsartsidou, Effrosyni Roditi, Eleni Panagopoulou, Panagiotis Karkanas, Katerina Harvati
Published in: Quaternary, Issue 7, 2024, Page(s) 41, ISSN 2571-550X
Publisher: MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/quat7040041

New insights from the application of ZooMS to Late Pleistocene fauna from Grotta di Castelcivita, southern Italy

Author(s): Annette Oertle, Jacopo Crezzini, Adriana Moroni, Annamaria Ronchitelli, Stefano Benazzi, Armando Falcucci, Giulia Marciani, Matteo Rossini, Ivan Martini, Simona Arrighi, Tom Higham, Francesco Boschin, Katerina Douka
Published in: Scientific Reports, Issue 15, 2025, ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-11355-6

A Reinvestigation of the Upper Paleolithic Postcranial Human Remains from the La Rochette Rock Shelter (Saint-Léon-sur-Vézère, France)

Author(s): David Naumann, Katerina Harvati
Published in: PaleoAnthropology, Issue 2026:1, 2026, Page(s) 2-27, ISSN 1545-0031
Publisher: Paleoanthropology Society, European Society for the Study of Human Evolution
DOI: 10.48738/2026.iss1.3869

Drilling the Marathousa palaeo‐lake in Greece (Peloponnese): inferring the environmental context of a Middle Pleistocene archaeological site

Author(s): Ines J. E. Bludau, Bernd Wagner, Uwe Kirscher, Maria Schindler, Charlotte Zachow, Johannes Schmidt, Niklas Leicher, Giovanni Muttoni, Serena Perini, Vangelis Tourloukis, Eleni Panagopoulou, Panagiotis Karkanas, Katerina Harvati, Annett Junginger
Published in: Boreas, 2026, ISSN 0300-9483
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1111/bor.70061

Production method of the Königsaue birch tar documents cumulative culture in Neanderthals

Author(s): Patrick Schmidt, Tabea J. Koch, Matthias A. Blessing, F. Alexandros Karakostis, Katerina Harvati, Veit Dresely, Armelle Charrié-Duhaut
Published in: Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, Issue 15, 2023, ISSN 1866-9557
Publisher: Springer Verlag
DOI: 10.1007/s12520-023-01789-2

Differences in childhood stress between Neanderthals and early modern humans as reflected by dental enamel growth disruptions

Author(s): Laura Sophia Limmer, Matteo Santon, Kate McGrath, Katerina Harvati, Sireen El Zaatari
Published in: Scientific Reports, Issue 14, 2024, ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-61321-x

Evidence for dynastic succession among early Celtic elites in Central Europe

Author(s): Joscha Gretzinger, Felicitas Schmitt, Angela Mötsch, Selina Carlhoff, Thiseas Christos Lamnidis, Yilei Huang, Harald Ringbauer, Corina Knipper, Michael Francken, Franziska Mandt, Leif Hansen, Cäcilia Freund, Cosimo Posth, Hannes Rathmann, Katerina Harvati, Günther Wieland, Lena Granehäll, Frank Maixner, Albert Zink, Wolfram Schier, Dirk Krausse, Johannes Krause, Stephan Schiffels
Published in: Nature Human Behaviour, Issue 8, 2024, Page(s) 1467-1480, ISSN 2397-3374
Publisher: Springer Nature
DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-01888-7

Evolution of Homo in the Middle and Late Pleistocene

Author(s): Katerina Harvati; Hugo Reyes-Centeno
Published in: Journal of Human Evolution, Issue Vol 173, 103279, 2022, Page(s) 1-12, ISSN 0047-2484
Publisher: Academic Press
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103279

The expression of the MIS 12 glacial stage in Southeastern Europe and its impact over the Middle Pleistocene hominins in Megalopolis Basin (Greece)

Author(s): Geanina A. Butiseacă, Iuliana Vasiliev, Marcel T.J. van der Meer, Ines J.E. Bludau, Panagiotis Karkanas, Vangelis Tourloukis, Annett Junginger, Andreas Mulch, Eleni Panagopoulou, Katerina Harvati
Published in: Global and Planetary Change, Issue 242, 2024, Page(s) 104585, ISSN 0921-8181
Publisher: Elsevier BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2024.104585

Small flakes for sharp needs: Technological behaviour in the Lower Palaeolithic site of Marathousa 1, Greece

Author(s): Dalila De Caro, Moritz Kuhn, Nicholas Thompson, Eleni Panagopoulou, Katerina Harvati, Vangelis Tourloukis
Published in: PLOS One, Issue 20, 2025, Page(s) e0324958, ISSN 1932-6203
Publisher: Public Library of Science
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0324958

Frontal sinuses and human evolution

Author(s): Antoine Balzeau, Lou Albessard-Ball, Anna Maria Kubicka, Andréa Filippo, Amélie Beaudet, Elena Santos, Thibault Bienvenu, Juan-Luis Arsuaga, Antonis Bartsiokas, Lee Berger , José María Bermúdez de Castro, Michel Brunet, Kristian J. Carlson, Joan Daura, Vassilis G. Gorgoulis, Frederick E. Grine, Katerina Harvati, John Hawks , Andy Herries, Jean-Jacques Hublin, Jiaming Hui, Rachel Ives, Josephi
Published in: Science Advances, Issue volume 8, issue 42, 2023, Page(s) 1-10, ISSN 2375-2548
Publisher: AAAS
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abp9767

Inferring human neutral genetic variation from craniodental phenotypes

Author(s): Hannes Rathmann; Silvia Perretti; Valentina Porcu; Tsunehiko Hanihara; G Richard Scott; Joel D Irish; Hugo Reyes-Centeno; Silvia Ghirotto; Katerina Harvati
Published in: PNAS Nexus, Issue Volume 2, Issue 4, pgad217, 2023, Page(s) 1-11, ISSN 2752-6542
Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad217

<i>Icex</i>: Advances in the automatic extraction and volume calculation of cranial cavities

Author(s): Costantino Buzi; Antonio Profico; Ce Liang; Roman H. Khonsari; Paul O'Higgins; Mehran Moazen; Katerina Harvati
Published in: Journal of Anatomy, Issue Volume 242, Issue 6, 2022, Page(s) 1172-1183, ISSN 0021-8782
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing Inc.
DOI: 10.1111/joa.13843

Dentition of the Mugharet El'Aliya Fossil Human Maxilla, Morocco

Author(s): Carolin Röding, Sireen El‐Zaatari, Fernando V. Ramirez Rozzi, Chris Stringer, M. Loring Burgess, Rodrigo S. Lacruz, Katerina Harvati
Published in: American Journal of Biological Anthropology, Issue 186, 2025, ISSN 2692-7691
Publisher: Wiley
DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.70015

Evidence for the earliest hominin use of wooden handheld tools found at Marathousa 1 (Greece)

Author(s): Annemieke Milks, Maria Ntinou, Stylianos Koutalis, Dimitrios Michailidis, George E. Konidaris, Domenico Giusti, Nicholas Thompson, Georgia Tsartsidou, Eleni Panagopoulou, Vangelis Tourloukis, Panagiotis Karkanas, Katerina Harvati
Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Issue 123, 2026, ISSN 0027-8424
Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2515479123

Life-history of Palaeoloxodon antiquus reveals Middle Pleistocene glacial refugium in the Megalopolis basin, Greece

Author(s): Effrosyni Roditi, Hervé Bocherens, George E. Konidaris, Athanassios Athanassiou, Vangelis Tourloukis, Panagiotis Karkanas, Eleni Panagopoulou, Katerina Harvati
Published in: Scientific Reports, Issue 14, 2024, ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-51592-9

Kayaca, a new vertebrate locality from the Upper Miocene of Türkiye and its importance for the Turolian biogeography of the eastern peri-Mediterranean region

Author(s): George E. Konidaris, Ahmet Ihsan Aytek, Dimitris S. Kostopoulos, Alper Yener Yavuz, Erhan Tarhan, Mehmet Cihat Alçiçek, Nail Uyar, Katerina Harvati
Published in: Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments, Issue 106, 2026, Page(s) 211-227, ISSN 1867-1594
Publisher: Springer Verlag
DOI: 10.1007/s12549-025-00666-1

Virtual reconstruction and geometric morphometric analysis of the Kocabaş hominin fossil from Turkey: Implications for taxonomy and evolutionary significance

Author(s): Tommaso Mori, Alessandro Riga, Ahmet Ihsan Aytek, Katerina Harvati
Published in: Journal of Human Evolution, Issue 191, 2024, Page(s) 103517, ISSN 0047-2484
Publisher: Academic Press
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103517

Mugharet el'Aliya: Affinities of an enigmatic north African Aterian maxillary fragment

Author(s): Carolin Röding; Chris Stringer; Rodrigo S. Lacruz; Katerina Harvati
Published in: American Journal of Biological Anthropology, Issue Volume 180, Issue 2, 2023, Page(s) 352-369, ISSN 2692-7691
Publisher: Wiley
DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.24642

Palaeogenomics of Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic European hunter-gatherers

Author(s): Cosimo Posth, He Yu, Ayshin Ghalichi, Hélène Rougier, Isabelle Crevecoeur, Yilei Huang, Harald Ringbauer, Adam B. Rohrlach, Kathrin Nägele, Vanessa Villalba-Mouco, Rita Radzeviciute, Tiago Ferraz, Alexander Stoessel, Rezeda Tukhbatova, Dorothée G. Drucker, Martina Lari, Alessandra Modi, Stefania Vai, Tina Saupe, Christiana L. Scheib, Giulio Catalano, Luca Pagani, Sahra Talamo, Helen Fewlass, L
Published in: Nature, Issue Volume 615, 2023, Page(s) 117-126, ISSN 0028-0836
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-05726-0

Hunting game: New data on the subsistence strategies during the Uluzzian in Italy

Author(s): Sara Silvestrini, Cristina Real, Federico Lugli, Davide Delpiano, Katerina Harvati, Carmine Collina, Marco Peresani, Enza Elena Spinapolice, Matteo Romandini, Stefano Benazzi
Published in: Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, Issue 57, 2024, Page(s) 104575, ISSN 2352-409X
Publisher: Elsevier BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2024.104575

From Neanderthals to Homo sapiens: New palaeoecological and tephrocronological data from the MIS3 layers of Grotta-Riparo di Uluzzo C (Apulia, southern Italy)

Author(s): Juan Ochando, Donatella Magri, Biagio Giaccio, Giovanni Zanchetta, Antonino Vazzana, Omry Barzilai, Francesco Berna, Gruppo Speleologico Neretino, Giulia Marciani, Andrea Zerboni, Sara Silvestrini, Enza E. Spinapolice, Adriana Moroni, Gabriele Terlato, Matteo Romandini, Stefano Benazzi
Published in: Quaternary Science Reviews, Issue 376, 2026, Page(s) 109830, ISSN 0277-3791
Publisher: Pergamon Press Ltd.
DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2026.109830

A morphological analysis of the modern human frontal bone from Hahnöfersand, Germany

Author(s): Carolin Röding, Antonio Profico, Michael Merkel, Katerina Harvati
Published in: Scientific Reports, Issue 16, 2026, ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-48468-5

The Human Remains From the <scp>MIS</scp> 6 Site of Grotta Del Poggio (Cilento, Southern Italy): A Taxonomic and Chronological Reassessment

Author(s): Erica Piccirilli, Rita Sorrentino, Francesca Seghi, Antonino Vazzana, Maria Giovanna Belcastro, Sahra Talamo, Katerina Harvati, Matteo Bettuzzi, Maria Pia Morigi, Gerhard Weber, Giulia Capecchi, Vincenzo Spagnolo, Ivan Martini, Adriana Moroni, Francesco Boschin, Stefano Ricci, Stefano Benazzi
Published in: American Journal of Biological Anthropology, Issue 188, 2026, ISSN 2692-7691
Publisher: Wiley
DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.70188

Human population dynamics in Upper Paleolithic Europe inferred from fossil dental phenotypes

Author(s): Hannes Rathmann, Maria T. Vizzari, Judith Beier, Shara E. Bailey, Silvia Ghirotto, Katerina Harvati
Published in: Science Advances, Issue 10, 2024, ISSN 2375-2548
Publisher: AAAS
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adn8129

Pre‐Fusion Shape Changes of Humeral Metaphyseal Surfaces: A New Method for Assessing Maturity and Age in Non‐Adult Skeletal Individuals

Author(s): Azahara Salazar‐Fernández, José Miguel Carretero, Yuliet Quintino, Katerina Harvati, Laura Rodríguez, Rebeca García‐González
Published in: American Journal of Biological Anthropology, Issue 186, 2025, ISSN 2692-7691
Publisher: Wiley
DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.25063