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

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.