Anatomically (including brain size) and genetically these early Homo sapiens sapiens were "just like us". That is the range of genetic and anatomical variation among them was roughly the same as that among humans now living. Exposed to the same cultural environment, about the same percentage among them as among us could have learned calculus and quantum mechanics.
Movement of Homo sapiens sapiens out of Africa into the Near East and Europe began sometime between 100 and 45 Kybp with the earliest appearance fossil remains in the Near East at about 90 Kybp, characteristic stone tools in Eastern Europe at about 43, Kybp and Western Europe at about 40 Kybp. This coincides roughly with the Early Weichsel-Wisconson glacial advance (80-45 Kybp) which produced a cooler and possibly wetter (though this is questionable, Goudie '94, pp. 116-121) in the intervening Sahara region which may have facilitated migration into the Near East. Lowering of the sea level coincident with the glacial advance produced a "land bridge" across the Bosphorus (and the Bering Strait as well) between about 60-45, Kybp which permitted further migration into Europe.
According to the most widely held view, diffusing Homo sapiens sapiens encounter and either displace or genetically intermingle with populations that evolved from earlier Homo erectus populations in the areas into which they move. ( A dissenting minority maintain that Homo sapiens sapiens evolved independently in each of these areas.) In the case of the Near East and Europe, the population encountered by Homo sapiens sapiens is relatively well known archaeologically under the name Homo sapiens neanderthalis --Neanderthals in popular parlance.
Neanderthals are present in the Near East and Europe from somewhat before 100 to 35 Kybp. There is no evidence they (or any other archaic Homo sapien people) ventured far beyond the areas inhabited by Homo erectus. Anatomically, Neanderthals were somewhat shorter and more heavily built than Homo sapiens sapiens with skulls shaped in a way gave them a somewhat beetle-browed appearance. There brain capacity was slightly larger than that of Homo sapiens sapiens. Neanderthals are associated with a characteristic stone tool complex called Mosterian. This complex appears to evolve continuously out of the Achulean with the variety of different tool types expanding and composite tools such as spears with stone points hafted to wooden shafts. The technology associated with this period is termed middle paleolithic. Some Neanderthal sites exhibit features that have been interpreted as evidence for the practice of religious ritual
Homo sapiens sapiens still earned their living by "hunting and gathering" as did their predecessors. Typically, this was done by a small band of nuclear families (about 30 persons) with a regular pattern seasonal movement following the availability of food sources. At some times of the year small bands might come together to exploit food resources in ways that required larger numbers of workers, for example game drives. Occasionally, availability of food resources at a single place throughout the year (for example, maritime or lacustrine resources like fish) provided the possibility for permanent or semi-permanent settlement.
As they diffused Homo sapiens sapiens carried with them a characteristic array of technology (termed upper paleolithic )including the spear thrower (know as the atlatl in the New World), the bow-and-arrow, tools for making other tools such as shaft straighteners and a core-blade technology that permitted the production of finished blades for a variety of special purposes. Homo sapiens sapiens also produced rather sophisticated art works including cave paintings and elaborately decorated artifacts in a variety of materials including stone, bone and wood.
Two possible routes have been seriously suggested for the diffusion of Homo sapiens sapiens into the New world: the Bering Strait and trans -Pacific via Oceana. The latter is usually not regarded a plausible candidate for the route of the first humans to enter the New World (Lack of adequate boats is the main difficulty.), though later trans-Pacific contact is still considered a serious possibility by some.
Topography (the position of the Himalayas) suggests at least two routes that might have carried Homo sapiens sapiens into a position to cross the Bering Strait into the New World from northeastern Siberia. One route moves from the Near East across southern Asia and China; the other from Central Europe across the Urals and central Siberia.
The earliest firm evidence of Homo sapiens sapiens in Southeast Asia and the Far East is dated at 50-37 Kybp, but some believe that they arrived somewhat earlier via the obvious route across the Indian sub-continent. There are also some who maintain that Homo sapiens sapiens evolved independently in China with an appearance as early 70 Kybp.
Movement from Central Europe into regions that might have permitted Homo sapiens sapiens to cross the Bering Strait into the New World appears to begin about 35 Kybp and carry them to a plausible point of departure firmly dated no earlier than 18 Kybp.
Some evidence of Mousterian (Neanderthal) technology is know in the basins of the Don and Deniper rivers east of the Ural Mountains dated to before 40 Kybp. The earliest known Homo sapiens sapiens remains from the same region date to 35 Kybp. Further east, in central Siberia north of Lake Bikal Homo sapiens sapiens sites date from 35 to 15 Kybp.
The archaeology of far northeastern Siberia near the Bering Strait is far from well known. But, so far as current knowledge goes, The most likely origin for the people who may have crossed the Bering Strait was the Dyukhtai tradition -- people who inhabited the Aldan River Valley , northeast of Lake Bikal what is now Russian Siberia. The earliest plausible date for the Dyukhtai is 35 Kybp, but this radio-carbon date from animal remains on river terraces is questionable because of possible disturbance caused by seasonal freezing an thawing. The earliest firm date is 18 Kybp.
On the basis of this evidence alone, one would be forced to conclude that Homo sapiens sapiens could not have entered the New World via the Bering Strait earlier than 35 and most likely not earlier than 18 Kybp.
