They could not date the teeth directly, but analysis of nearby mineral samples and animal fossils indicated the teeth are somewhere between 80,000 and 120,000 years old.
The finding raises the question of why our species did not enter Europe until only about 40,000 to 45,000 years ago. Maybe Neanderthals crowded them out, basically out-competing them as hunter-gatherers until their populations started to fade, the researchers suggest.
In a journal commentary, Robin Dennell of the University of Exeter in England suggests that cold winters might be a better explanation.