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The Last of Them: Investigating the Palaeogeography of the Last Neanderthals in Europe (Marine Isotopic Stage 3)

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Modelling Human-Environment Interactions in and beyond Prehistoric Europe

Part of the book series: Themes in Contemporary Archaeology ((TCA))

Abstract

Neanderthal (Homo neanderthalensis) is an endemic species of Eurasia. Appearing in the archaeological record about 350 kilo years Before Present (ky BP), it is associated with the Middle Palaeolithic period and the Mousterian archaeological culture. It occupied a vast territory, extending from Europe to the Middle East and as far East as the Altai region. Although Neanderthals display behavioral and adaptive diversity, the last palaeoanthropological and archaeological evidence of their presence in Western Europe dates to 40 ky BP. Their gradual decline and eventual disappearance took place during a period of great climatic instability, namely Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3; 60 to 27 ky BP), which also saw the arrival of the first anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) in Europe. It therefore appears necessary to investigate the impact of these factors in order to understand Neanderthal extinction. One of the main challenges is to correlate known archaeological data (chronological and spatial) with high resolution palaeoenvironmental data. Here, we present a methodology that assigns archaeological layers to a cold (stadial) or warm (interstadial) phase of MIS 3. This approach allows us to approach the palaeogeography of the last Neanderthals from a new perspective and provides a novel basis for modelling the influence of the abrupt climatic changes of this period on the resilience of this population.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Ariane Burke and Felix Riede for inviting us to participate in this very stimulating session in the EAA 2021 Annual Meeting.

B.A. conducted this research and wrote the chapter. S.P. contributed to different aspects of research design, including data collection, selection and analyses. M.H. design and carried out the R program in discussion with B.A., S.P. and A.B. C.W. carried out coastal reconstructions. A.B. directed and founded this project. All co-authors contributed to the final version of the manuscript.

This project was founded by the Hominin Dispersal Research Group (HDRG, dir. Pr. A. Burke) and the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et Culture (FRQSC; Project 316751).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département d’anthropologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada

    Benjamin Albouy, Simon Paquin & Ariane Burke

  2. Universität Bern, Institut für Archäologische Wissenschaften, Bern, Switzerland

    Martin Hinz

  3. Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, CO, USA

    Colin D. Wren

  4. Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Bern, Switzerland

    Ariane Burke

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  1. Benjamin Albouy
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Correspondence to Benjamin Albouy .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Département d’Anthropologie, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Samuel Seuru

  2. Département d’Anthropologie, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Benjamin Albouy

Appendix

Appendix

Supplement materials are available on the HDRG website: http://www.hominindispersals.net/datasets

  • Supplement material 1 General characterization of transitional techno-complexes in Europe during MIS 3

  • Supplement material 2 Database for Neanderthal presence in Europe during MIS 3

  • Supplement material 3 R script for chronological modelling

  • Supplement material 4 Chrono-climatic frame of MIS 3 in Europe

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Albouy, B., Paquin, S., Hinz, M., Wren, C.D., Burke, A. (2023). The Last of Them: Investigating the Palaeogeography of the Last Neanderthals in Europe (Marine Isotopic Stage 3). In: Seuru, S., Albouy, B. (eds) Modelling Human-Environment Interactions in and beyond Prehistoric Europe. Themes in Contemporary Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34336-0_2

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