Deconstructing Neanderthals’ Mobility from an Environmental Perspective

Abstract

Studies on raw materials procurement and toolkit transportation support the hypothesis that Neanderthals exploited mostly local environments, and only occasionally moved far away from their home base. This idea of Neanderthals, as a semi-sedentary species that moved frequently but in a rather small area, contrasts strongly with new archaeological and genetic discoveries of dispersals to Altai, and the ongoing discussion regarding the recurrent repopulations of North-Central Europe. This chapter explores this issue comparing the patterns of raw material management and environmental conditions from several key sites of Central Europe, Cantabrian region, and Western Mediterranean. The results indicate that in Central Europe is common the transport of artefacts from sources farther than 20 km without exploiting the intermediate environments. This pattern could be related with the high degree of contingency of the steppe and boreal environment forcing Neanderthals to trek to different areas to cope with the low predictability of the food distribution. Therefore, the Central European sites were localities well-known and Neanderthals groups dispersed over a large distance for their biotic resources. Conversely, in the Iberian Peninsula, the higher temperatures and the fewer days with snow cover allowed for the use of mixed mobility strategies favoring circular seasonal movements between inland areas and the coast.