First Neanderthal remains from Greece: the evidence from Lakonis

Abstract

The Middle–Upper Paleolithic transition hasbeen one of the foci of the debate on modernhuman origins. While the African archaeologicalrecord shows evidence of a gradual transition(McBrearty and Brooks, 2000; Mellars, 2002),interpreted as local evolution of modern behavior,in Europe many scholars see an abrupt appearanceof modern human behaviors, suggesting thereplacement of Neanderthals by invading modernhumans (several papers in Mellars and Stringer,1989; Bar-Yosef, 2000; Mellars, 2002). In thiscontext, a sharp contrast is drawn between “tran-sitional” industries of Mousterian affinities, alsotermed Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP), and theAurignacian. The former are usually consideredthe product of Neanderthal handiwork, while thelatter is thought to represent the dispersal signa-ture of modern humans (Kozlowski and Otte,2000; Raposo, 2000). However, a strong demar-cation between the Aurignacian and the “tran-sitional” industries is not always possible, thusconfounding the resolution of their relationship(Zilhao and D’Errico, 1999). While the two tech-nocomplexes are broadly “contemporaneous” atthe resolution of our current dating methods,taphonomic considerations, regional variations,and different approaches to data analysis compli-cate matters (Panagopoulou et al., in review). Therarity of human remains associated with earlyUpper Paleolithic industries is the most importantamong these complications (Churchill and Smith,2000; see also Trinkaus, 2003; Gibbons, 2003).We report the discovery of a Neanderthal tooth(LKH 1) found in association with the InitialUpper Paleolithic from Lakonis I, SouthernGreece, and provisionally dated to <38–44 Ka.LKH 1 represents the first confidently identifiedNeanderthal specimen recovered from Greece;there is only one other possible Greek represen-tative of this group (Darlas and de Lumley, 1998).Lakonis and its main findings are discussed ingreater detail elsewhere (Panagopoulou et al.,in review). The present report will therefore belimited to a discussion of the human specimen, aswell as the background of the site’s stratigraphyand lithic assemblages.Lakonis consists of a cave and several collapsedkarstic formations, designated I to V, and is situ-ated on the Mani peninsula, 3 km east of the town