A population-genetics basedmodel for explaining apparent cultural continuity from themiddle to upper palaeolithic in Eurasia

Abstract

There has been heated debate over the interpretation of the Châtelperronian industry as a result of Neanderthals’ acculturation through direct or distant influence from Homo sapiens. In contrast, relatively little attention has been paid to the possibility that Homo sapienspopulations may also have undergone acculturation through the influence from indigenous archaic hominins during the expansion of their habitat range. In this article, we argue that the acculturation of the invading Homo sapiens population may provide a consistent explanation for varying degrees of cultural continuity across the MP-UP transition widely observed in Eurasia. We simulate the spread of a Homo sapiens population in a region preoccupied by an archaic hominin population by means of mathematical modeling to investigate the possible effects of the acculturation of the Homo sapiens population on the pattern of the cultural transition associated with biological replacement. The results suggest that cultural continuity is likely to be observed when the Homo sapiens population is initially small and/or spreads slowly. This in turn implies that whether the local physical environment was relatively favorable to Homo sapiens or to the archaic hominin is an important determinant of the degree of the continuity.