Abstract
The late persistence in Southern Iberia of a Neandertal-associated Middle Paleolithic is supported by the archeological stratigraphy and the radiocarbon and luminescence dating of three newly excavated localities in the Mula basin of Murcia (Spain). At Cueva Antón, Mousterian layer I-k can be no more than 37,100 years-old. At La Boja, the basal Aurignacian can be no less than 36,500 years-old. The regional Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition process is thereby bounded to the first half of the 37th millennium Before Present, in agreement with evidence from Andalusia, Gibraltar and Portugal. This chronology represents a lag of minimally 3000 years with the rest of Europe, where that transition and the associated process of Neandertal/modern human admixture took place between 40,000 and 42,000 years ago. The lag implies the presence of an effective barrier to migration and diffusion across the Ebro river depression, which, based on available paleoenvironmental indicators, would at that time have represented a major biogeographical divide. In addition, (a) the Phlegraean Fields caldera explosion, which occurred 39,850 years ago, would have stalled the Neandertal/modern human admixture front because of the population sink it generated in Central and Eastern Europe, and (b) the long period of ameliorated climate that came soon after (Greenland Interstadial 8, during which forests underwent a marked expansion in Iberian regions south of 40°N) would have enhanced the “Ebro Frontier” effect. These findings have two broader paleoanthropological implications: firstly, that, below the Ebro, the archeological record made prior to 37,000 years ago must be attributed, in all its aspects and components, to the Neandertals (or their ancestors); secondly, that modern human emergence is best seen as an uneven, punctuated process during which long-lasting barriers to gene flow and cultural diffusion could have existed across rather short distances, with attendant consequences for ancient genetics and models of human population history.
Highlights
In the Aquitaine basin and the Pyrenees, the Middle Paleolithic (MP) Mousterian culture is followed, in succession, by the Châtelperronian, the Protoaurignacian and the Aurignacian I
Cueva Antón (SI appendix, chapter 2; Fig. 2) is a cave located in the valley of River Mula (Zilhão et al, 2010a; Angelucci et al, 2013; Zilhão et al, 2016)
Layer I-k of Cueva Antón and occupation horizons OH20 and OH19 of La Boja stand for concrete manifestations of mutually exclusive, long-lasting technologies whose succession, rather than a gradual transition, truly consisted of an abrupt replacement
Summary
In the Aquitaine basin and the Pyrenees, the Middle Paleolithic (MP) Mousterian culture is followed, in succession, by the Châtelperronian, the Protoaurignacian and the Aurignacian I In Iberia, these initial phases of the Upper Paleolithic (UP) are represented in the Cantabrian strip and in Catalonia but remain unknown to the South of the Ebro basin Based on these observations, the “Ebro Frontier” model hypothesizes that (a) in Valencia, Murcia, Andalusia, Gibraltar, the Mesetan hinterland, and Portugal, the corresponding chronostratigraphic slot is occupied by a late-persisting Mousterian and (b) the pattern is explained by the major biogeographical divide that the Ebro basin would have been at that time (Zilhão, 1993; Zilhão, 2000; Zilhão, 2006a; Zilhão, 2009). Evolved Aurignacian), which extend from Asturias in the West to northern Israel in the East, are associated with modern humans only (Verna et al, 2012) In this context, the broader paleoanthropological significance of the “Ebro Frontier” model resides in the implication that Neandertals persisted in Southern and Western Iberia longer than everywhere else
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