ALBERT

Description: The timing of Neanderthal disappearance and the extent to which they overlapped with the earliest incoming anatomically modern humans (AMHs) in Eurasia are key questions in palaeoanthropology. Determining the spatiotemporal relationship between the two populations is crucial if we are to understand the processes, timing and reasons leading to the disappearance of Neanderthals and the likelihood of cultural and genetic exchange. Serious technical challenges, however, have hindered reliable dating of the period, as the radiocarbon method reaches its limit at approximately 50,000 years ago. Here we apply improved accelerator mass spectrometry (14)C techniques to construct robust chronologies from 40 key Mousterian and Neanderthal archaeological sites, ranging from Russia to Spain. Bayesian age modelling was used to generate probability distribution functions to determine the latest appearance date. We show that the Mousterian ended by 41,030-39,260 calibrated years bp (at 95.4% probability) across Europe. We also demonstrate that succeeding 'transitional' archaeological industries, one of which has been linked with Neanderthals (Chatelperronian), end at a similar time. Our data indicate that the disappearance of Neanderthals occurred at different times in different regions. Comparing the data with results obtained from the earliest dated AMH sites in Europe, associated with the Uluzzian technocomplex, allows us to quantify the temporal overlap between the two human groups. The results reveal a significant overlap of 2,600-5,400 years (at 95.4% probability). This has important implications for models seeking to explain the cultural, technological and biological elements involved in the replacement of Neanderthals by AMHs. A mosaic of populations in Europe during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition suggests that there was ample time for the transmission of cultural and symbolic behaviours, as well as possible genetic exchanges, between the two groups.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Higham, Tom -- Douka, Katerina -- Wood, Rachel -- Ramsey, Christopher Bronk -- Brock, Fiona -- Basell, Laura -- Camps, Marta -- Arrizabalaga, Alvaro -- Baena, Javier -- Barroso-Ruiz, Cecillio -- Bergman, Christopher -- Boitard, Coralie -- Boscato, Paolo -- Caparros, Miguel -- Conard, Nicholas J -- Draily, Christelle -- Froment, Alain -- Galvan, Bertila -- Gambassini, Paolo -- Garcia-Moreno, Alejandro -- Grimaldi, Stefano -- Haesaerts, Paul -- Holt, Brigitte -- Iriarte-Chiapusso, Maria-Jose -- Jelinek, Arthur -- Jorda Pardo, Jesus F -- Maillo-Fernandez, Jose-Manuel -- Marom, Anat -- Maroto, Julia -- Menendez, Mario -- Metz, Laure -- Morin, Eugene -- Moroni, Adriana -- Negrino, Fabio -- Panagopoulou, Eleni -- Peresani, Marco -- Pirson, Stephane -- de la Rasilla, Marco -- Riel-Salvatore, Julien -- Ronchitelli, Annamaria -- Santamaria, David -- Semal, Patrick -- Slimak, Ludovic -- Soler, Joaquim -- Soler, Narcis -- Villaluenga, Aritza -- Pinhasi, Ron -- Jacobi, Roger -- England -- Nature. 2014 Aug 21;512(7514):306-9. doi: 10.1038/nature13621.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology &the History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK. ; 1] Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology &the History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK [2] Research School for Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra 0200, Australia. ; School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology (GAP), Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK. ; School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, College Park, 4102 Jimenez Hall, University of Maryland, Maryland 20742-4821, USA. ; Research Team on Prehistory (IT-622-13), IKERBASQUE, University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU), Tomas y Valiente Street, 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. ; Departimento Prehistoria y Arqueologia, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Campus Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain. ; Fundacion Instituto de Investigacion de Prehistoria y Evolucion Humana, Plaza del Coso 1, 14900 Lucena, Cordoba, Spain. ; URS, 525 Vine Street, Suite 1800, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202, USA. ; 8 rue des Sapins, 67100 Strasbourg, France. ; Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche, della Terra e dell'Ambiente, U.R. Preistoria e Antropologia, Universita degli Studi di Siena, Via Laterina 8, 53100 Siena, Italy. ; Departement de Prehistoire, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 75013 Paris, France. ; 1] Abt. Altere Urgeschichte und Quartarokologie, Universitat Tubingen, Schloss Hohentubingen, 72070 Tubingen, Germany [2] Tubingen Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoecology, Schloss Hohentubingen, 72070 Tubingen, Germany. ; Service public de Wallonie, DGO4, Service de l'Archeologie, rue des Martyrs, 22, B-6700 Arlon, Belgium. ; Laboratoire d'Eco-antropologie et Ethnobiologie, Musee de l'Homme, 17 place du Trocadero, 75116 Paris, France. ; Departamento de Prehistoria, Arqueologia, Antropologia e Historia Antigua, Universidad de La Laguna, Campus de Guajara, 38071 Tenerife, Spain. ; 1] Monrepos Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution, Schloss Monrepos, D-56567 Neuwied, Germany [2] The Cantabria International Institute for Prehistoric Research (IIIPC), University of Cantabria, Avda. Los Castros, s/n. 39005 Santander, Spain. ; Laboratorio di Preistoria 'B. Bagolini', Dipartimento di Lettere e Filosofia, Universita degli Studi di Trento, via Tommaso Gar, 14 I-38122 Trento, Italy. ; Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, rue Vautier 29, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium. ; Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, 103 Machmer Hall, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA. ; School of Anthropology, Emil W. Haury Building, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721-0030, USA. ; Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueologia, UNED. Paseo Senda del Rey 7, 20840, Madrid, Spain. ; 1] Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology &the History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK [2] The Kimmel Center for Archaeological Science, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel. ; rea de Prehistoria, Universitat de Girona, pl. Ferrater Mora 1, 17071 Girona, Spain. ; CNRS, UMR 5608, TRACES, Toulouse Jean Jaures University, Maison de la Recherche, 5 Allees Antonio Machado, 31058 Toulouse, Cedex 9, France. ; Department of Anthropology, Trent University, Life and Health Sciences Building Block C, 2140 East Bank Drive, Peterborough, Ontario K9J 7B8, Canada. ; Dipartimento di Antichita, Filosofia e Storia, Universita di Genova, Via Balbi 2, Genova I-16126, Italy. ; Ephoreia of Paleoanthropology of Southern Greece, Ardittou 34B, Athens 11636, Greece. ; Universita di Ferrara, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche, Corso Ercole I d'Este 32, I-44100 Ferrara, Italy. ; Service public de Wallonie, DGO4, Direction de l'Archeologie, rue des Brigades d'Irlande, 1, B-5100 Jambes, Belgium. ; Departamento de Historia, Universidad de Oviedo, c/Teniente Alfonso Martinez, s/n, 33011 Oviedo, Spain. ; Departement d'Anthropologie, Universite de Montreal, C. P. 6128, Succursale Centre-ville, Montreal, Quebec H3T 1N8, Canada. ; Service of Scientific Heritage, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, 1000 Brussels, Belgium. ; Monrepos Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution, Schloss Monrepos, D-56567 Neuwied, Germany. ; UCD Earth Institute and School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland. ; 1] Department of Prehistory and Europe, Franks House, The British Museum, London N1 5QJ, UK [2] The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK [3].〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25143113" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The Protoaurignacian culture is pivotal to the debate about the timing of the arrival of modern humans in western Europe and the demise of Neandertals. However, which group is responsible for this culture remains uncertain. We investigated dental remains associated with the Protoaurignacian. The lower deciduous incisor from Riparo Bombrini is modern human, based on its morphology. The upper deciduous incisor from Grotta di Fumane contains ancient mitochondrial DNA of a modern human type. These teeth are the oldest human remains in an Aurignacian-related archaeological context, confirming that by 41,000 calendar years before the present, modern humans bearing Protoaurignacian culture spread into southern Europe. Because the last Neandertals date to 41,030 to 39,260 calendar years before the present, we suggest that the Protoaurignacian triggered the demise of Neandertals in this area.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Benazzi, S -- Slon, V -- Talamo, S -- Negrino, F -- Peresani, M -- Bailey, S E -- Sawyer, S -- Panetta, D -- Vicino, G -- Starnini, E -- Mannino, M A -- Salvadori, P A -- Meyer, M -- Paabo, S -- Hublin, J-J -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 May 15;348(6236):793-6. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa2773. Epub 2015 Apr 23.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna, Via degli Ariani 1, 48121 Ravenna, Italy. Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. stefano.benazzi@unibo.it. ; Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. ; Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. ; Dipartimento di Antichita, Filosofia, Storia e Geografia, Universita di Genova, Via Balbi 2, 16126 Genova, Italy. ; Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Corso Ercole I d'Este 32, Universita di Ferrara, 44100 Ferrara, Italy. ; Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. Center for the Study of Human Origins, Department of Anthropology, New York University, 25 Waverly Place, New York, NY 10003, USA. ; CNR Institute of Clinical Physiology, National Research Council, Via G. Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy. ; Museo Archeologico del Finale, Chiostri di Santa Caterina, 17024 Finale Ligure Borgo, Italy. ; Scuola di Scienze Umanistiche, Dipartimento di Studi Storici, Universita di Torino, via S. Ottavio 20, 10124 Torino, Italy. Museo Preistorico Nazionale dei Balzi Rossi, Via Balzi Rossi 9, 18039 Ventimiglia, Italy.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25908660" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Modern humans arrived in Europe ~45,000 years ago, but little is known about their genetic composition before the start of farming ~8,500 years ago. Here we analyse genome-wide data from 51 Eurasians from ~45,000-7,000 years ago. Over this time, the proportion of Neanderthal DNA decreased from 3-6% to around 2%, consistent with natural selection against Neanderthal variants in modern humans. Whereas there is no evidence of the earliest modern humans in Europe contributing to the genetic composition of present-day Europeans, all individuals between ~37,000 and ~14,000 years ago descended from a single founder population which forms part of the ancestry of present-day Europeans. An ~35,000-year-old individual from northwest Europe represents an early branch of this founder population which was then displaced across a broad region, before reappearing in southwest Europe at the height of the last Ice Age ~19,000 years ago. During the major warming period after ~14,000 years ago, a genetic component related to present-day Near Easterners became widespread in Europe. These results document how population turnover and migration have been recurring themes of European prehistory.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Fu, Qiaomei -- Posth, Cosimo -- Hajdinjak, Mateja -- Petr, Martin -- Mallick, Swapan -- Fernandes, Daniel -- Furtwangler, Anja -- Haak, Wolfgang -- Meyer, Matthias -- Mittnik, Alissa -- Nickel, Birgit -- Peltzer, Alexander -- Rohland, Nadin -- Slon, Viviane -- Talamo, Sahra -- Lazaridis, Iosif -- Lipson, Mark -- Mathieson, Iain -- Schiffels, Stephan -- Skoglund, Pontus -- Derevianko, Anatoly P -- Drozdov, Nikolai -- Slavinsky, Vyacheslav -- Tsybankov, Alexander -- Cremonesi, Renata Grifoni -- Mallegni, Francesco -- Gely, Bernard -- Vacca, Eligio -- Morales, Manuel R Gonzalez -- Straus, Lawrence G -- Neugebauer-Maresch, Christine -- Teschler-Nicola, Maria -- Constantin, Silviu -- Moldovan, Oana Teodora -- Benazzi, Stefano -- Peresani, Marco -- Coppola, Donato -- Lari, Martina -- Ricci, Stefano -- Ronchitelli, Annamaria -- Valentin, Frederique -- Thevenet, Corinne -- Wehrberger, Kurt -- Grigorescu, Dan -- Rougier, Helene -- Crevecoeur, Isabelle -- Flas, Damien -- Semal, Patrick -- Mannino, Marcello A -- Cupillard, Christophe -- Bocherens, Herve -- Conard, Nicholas J -- Harvati, Katerina -- Moiseyev, Vyacheslav -- Drucker, Dorothee G -- Svoboda, Jiri -- Richards, Michael P -- Caramelli, David -- Pinhasi, Ron -- Kelso, Janet -- Patterson, Nick -- Krause, Johannes -- Paabo, Svante -- Reich, David -- Nature. 2016 May 2. doi: 10.1038/nature17993.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, IVPP, CAS, Beijing 100044, China. ; Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. ; Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. ; Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Archaeo- and Palaeogenetics, University of Tubingen, 72070 Tubingen, Germany. ; Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, 07745 Jena, Germany. ; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA. ; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. ; School of Archaeology and Earth Institute, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland. ; CIAS, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal. ; Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, SA-5005 Adelaide, Australia. ; Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. ; Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch, 17 Novosibirsk, RU-630090, Russia. ; Altai State University, Barnaul, RU-656049, Russia. ; Dipartimento di Civilta e Forme del Sapere, Universita di Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy. ; Department of Biology, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy. ; Direction regionale des affaires culturelles Rhone-Alpes, 69283 Lyon, Cedex 01, France. ; Dipartimento di Biologia, Universita degli Studi di Bari 'Aldo Moro', 70125 Bari, Italy. ; Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistoricas, Universidad de Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain. ; Department of Anthropology, MSC01 1040, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131-0001, USA. ; Quaternary Archaeology, Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, 1010 Vienna, Austria. ; Department of Anthropology, Natural History Museum Vienna, 1010 Vienna, Austria. ; Department of Anthropology, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria. ; "Emil Racovita" Institute of Speleology, 010986 Bucharest 12, Romania. ; "Emil Racovita" Institute of Speleology, Cluj Branch, 400006 Cluj, Romania. ; Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna, 48121 Ravenna, Italy. ; Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Universita di Ferrara, 44100 Ferrara, Italy. ; Universita degli Studi di Bari 'Aldo Moro', 70125 Bari, Italy. ; Museo di "Civilta preclassiche della Murgia meridionale", 72017 Ostuni, Italy. ; Dipartimento di Biologia, Universita di Firenze, 50122 Florence, Italy. ; Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche, della Terra e dell'Ambiente, U.R. Preistoria e Antropologia, Universita degli Studi di Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy. ; CNRS/UMR 7041 ArScAn MAE, 92023 Nanterre, France. ; INRAP/UMR 8215 Trajectoires 21, 92023 Nanterre, France. ; Ulmer Museum, 89073 Ulm, Germany. ; University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geology and Geophysics, Department of Geology, 01041 Bucharest, Romania. ; Department of Anthropology, California State University Northridge, Northridge, California 91330-8244, USA. ; Universite de Bordeaux, CNRS, UMR 5199-PACEA, 33615 Pessac Cedex, France. ; TRACES - UMR 5608, Universite Toulouse Jean Jaures, Maison de la Recherche, 31058 Toulouse Cedex 9, France. ; Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, 1000 Brussels, Belgium. ; Department of Archaeology, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, 8270 Hojbjerg, Denmark. ; Service Regional d'Archeologie de Franche-Comte, 25043 Besancon Cedex, France. ; Laboratoire Chronoenvironnement, UMR 6249 du CNRS, UFR des Sciences et Techniques, 25030 Besancon Cedex, France. ; Department of Geosciences, Biogeology, University of Tubingen, 72074 Tubingen, Germany. ; Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of Tubingen, 72072 Tubingen, Germany. ; Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tubingen, 72070 Tubingen, Germany. ; Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Paleoanthropology, University of Tubingen, 72070 Tubingen, Germany. ; Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, Saint Petersburg 34, Russia. ; Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic. ; Institute of Archaeology at Brno, Academy of Science of the Czech Republic, 69129 Dolni Vestonice, Czech Republic. ; Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27135931" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: A large and varied avifaunal bone assemblage from the final Mousterian levels of Grotta di Fumane, northern Italy, reveals unusual human modifications on species that are not clearly relatable to feeding or utilitarian uses (i.e., lammergeier, Eurasian black vulture, golden eagle, red-footed falcon, common wood pigeon, and Alpine chough). Cut, peeling, and scrape marks, as well as diagnostic fractures and a breakthrough, are observed exclusively on wings, indicating the intentional removal of large feathers by Neandertals. The species involved, the anatomical elements affected, and the unusual type and location of the human modifications indicate an activity linked to the symbolic sphere and the behavioral modernity of this European autochthonous population.

Description: IN THE FILE

Description: Published

Description: reserved