The Demise of the Neanderthal Cultural Niche and the Beginning of the Upper Paleolithic in Southwestern Germany

Abstract

The karst landscape of the Swabian Jura of southwestern Germany preserves an unusually complete record of Paleolithic prehistory. Many caves in the region contain evidence for Middle Paleolithic occupations. These find horizons are usually classified as belonging to the Swabian Mousterian. The find densities of lithic artifacts and anthropogenically modified fauna are typically low. Roughly 40 ka, the Upper Paleolithic began with the Aurignacian, which corresponds to the time of the arrival of modern humans in the region. At several key sites, Aurignacian find horizons overlie sterile geogenic deposits, and nowhere are Middle Paleolithic and Upper Paleolithic deposits interstratified. The material culture of the Aurignacian is characterized by numerous new forms of lithic and organic artifacts and much higher find densities than those usually documented in the Middle Paleolithic. While the resources used in both the Middle and Upper Paleolithic reflect a degree of continuity, the overall picture indicates that the start of the Upper Paleolithic represents a radical break in the history of settlement in southwestern Germany. With the arrival of modern humans in Eurasia, the cultural niche of Neanderthals was no longer viable. Rather than drastically changing their social and cultural patterns of behavior, Neanderthals may have been locked into their systems of behavior that had served them well in numerous contexts over millennia.