Abstract
In the present paper we systematically evaluate the radiometric database underlying the Middle to Upper Palaeolithc transition in southwestern Europe.The different models which attempt to explain the demographical processes underlying this transition rely to a large degree on radiocarbon chronology. We observe that: 1) with increasing age, dates on bone samples show large offsets against those on charcoal, often underestimating these for several thousand years BP and; 2) there is no proof for a persistence of Middle Palaeolithic industries into the time of the earliest Aurignacian in SW Europe. These data contradict the “Ebro- Frontier” model that distinguishes Late Middle Palaeolithic industries in the SW of the Iberian Peninsula from early Aurignacian ones in the NE. On the contrary, our data 3) imply a model of interregional shifts of populations contracting during severe cold and arid phases and expanding under warmer, interstadial conditions, raising ideas on a regional in situ development of the SW European Aurignacian out of Latest Middle Palaeolithic industries made by Neanderthals some 40.0 kyr cal BC.
Highlights
The disappearance of Neanderthals is one of the most controversial questions in the study of homi-nid evolution
Neanderthal fossil remains throughout Europe are exclusively known from pre-Aurignacian sites (Fig. 1), while early anatomically modern humans are exclusively tied to Upper Palaeolithic (UP) and younger technocomplexes
OxA-6503 gave a date of 35,900 ± 1100 14C BP, whereas a tripeptide-measurement of the same sample resulted in 38,100 ± 1000 14C BP, close to the date that we propose for the earliest Aurignacian in the North of the Iberian Peninsula
Summary
Recent studies in molecular genetics of fossil Neanderthal remains (Krings et al 1997; 1999; Ovchinnikov et al 2000) and new finds of early Homo sapiens in Ethiopia (White et al 2003; cf Clark et al 2003) have provided substantial support for the “Out of Africa” hypothesis, whereby anatomically modern humans immigrated from Africa through the Near East into Europe replacing indigenous Neanderthal populations (Stringer 2003) This process – roughly placed between 40.0 and 30.0 kyr ago – is generally assumed to be unidirectional, with modern humans spreading rapidly through Central Europe, arriving on the Iberian Peninsula (Zilhão and d’Errico 1999)
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