@HWiesenmueller
I misunderstood something in your quote from the pub-sci article so I searched and read the paper https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-022-01970-1

I had thought, the quote implied, anatomically modern humans were somehow involved in the cache of 500+ manufactured obsidian tools 1.2ma.
Which ofc they weren't. The earliest bones from anatomically modern humans known today come from a cave in Jebel Irhoud in Morocco and 300ky old, published 2017.

The earliest remains (known in 2016) from H.heidelbergensis / H. rhodesiensis (or H.bodoensis to cancel the connection to corrupt sociopath C. Rhodes ) were from a site in South #Africa #Elandsfontain and are 700ky old.

Incredible what I used to have in mind when thinking of #Neanderthals / #heidelbergensis: brutal groups, barely human, unable to communicate beyond grunts.
But not even language acquisition was reserved for "anatomically modern humans" – a term I find increasingly useless the more I learn of what is known of #pleistocene humans.