Overview: Europe Middle-Late Pleistocene
• Middle Pleistocene Early Archaics
Middle Pleistocene
Regional Evolution: Europe
Projecting nose
Occipital bunning
• Neandertals: Late Pleistocene Archaics
• Early Modern Humans: <36,000 years ago
Midfacial Prognathism
Oblique IZM margin
Petralona
Greece
Middle Pleistocene
NEANDERTALS:
Middle Pleistocene
Late Archaic Homo sapiens of Western Eurasia
Regional Evolution: Europe
Petralona
Greece - 150 - 250 kyr
Male?
Arago 21
France - Mid. Pleist.
Female?
Photo from: R. Lewin in the Age of Mankind
Major Neandertal Sites
NEANDERTALS
MODERN HUMANS
in Europe
MODERN HUMANS
125
60
30
0
Thousand Years Before Present
From: I. Tattersall The Last Neandertal
1
Neandertals: Chronology
Neandertals: Anatomy
Origin: “fuzzy”
Mousterian: 200-250 kyr BP
Ehringsdorf: 200-205 kyr BP
Fate:
Vindija: 28 kyr BP
Zafarraya: 29-30 kyr BP
Neandertal
(La Ferrassie 1)
Neandertals: Anatomy - La Chapelle-aux-Saints
Supraorbital
Torus
Occipital
Bun
Modern Human
(Predmosti 4)
Functional Anatomy
Adaptation to Cold/Arid Environment
• Body Form: short, stocky
• Midfacial prognathism: large sinuses, big nose
N
Midfacial
Prognath.
“small”
Mastoid process
• Long, low vault
• Brain Size
Weak/No Chin
M
Lifeways Adaptation:
H-G on Rugged Tundra
• Large articular surfaces
• powerful musculature
• Large fingers & toes
female: 1286 cc ( vs. 1307 cc)
male: 1575 cc ( vs. 1555 cc)
Cultural Complexity
Cultural Complexity
General Adaptation: Hunters-Gatherers
Neandertal Technological Traditions:
≈ 29 - 250 kyr BP ->
Mousterian
≈ 40 - 32 kyr BP ->
Chatelperronian
& Szeletian (?)
28 kyr BP ->
Aurignacian? (Vindija)
NEANDERTAL ≠ MOUSTERIAN
From The Book of Life
From The Boook of Life
2
Fate of the Neandertals:
Cultural Complexity
Symbolic Behavior: Burial, Adornment, Music?
From Radovcic 1999.
Arcy-Sur-Cur necklace
Divje Babe 1 “flute”
The Big Question
Photo from: R. Lewin in the Age of Mankind
The Big Question
Did Neandertals
and Modern Humans
Do It?
Did Neandertals
and Modern Humans
Do It?
Video from Neanderthal, Discovery Channel (Discovery.com)
What Happened to the Neandertals?
Species
An extinct
population?
“Groups of interbreeding natural
populations that are reproductively
isolated from other such groups”
Or
- E. Mayr, 1963, Populations, Species, and Evolution, p. 12
An extinct species?
Translation:
If they can do it and have kids,
they’re the same species.
Image from Lewin, 1987
3
Fate of the Neandertals:
Europe: Early Modern Humans
Vindija Cave (Croatia)
Earliest:
• Pestera Oase, Romania
34-36 ka
- Modern but some Neandertal features
v
• Mladec, Czech Rep.
32-34 ka
- Modern but some Neandertal features
• Stetten, Germany
30-32 ka
- Modern but few Neandertal features
Europe: Early Modern Humans
“Weak” Multiregional Evolution
Europe
Coastal
Australia East Asia
Inland
East Asia
Middle
East
Sub-Saharan
Africa
v
Mladec:
Today
≈30 kya
≈90 kya
M1: Female?
M5: Male?
≈300 kya
4