Neanderthal technological variability: A wide-ranging geographical perspective on the final Middle Palaeolithic

Lithics from the Mousterian site of La Quina in the Charente region of southern France are used to add to our understanding of Neanderthal technology and subsistence. A comparison of morphological variability, technique of reduction, and reduction intensity for tools from different strata adds a historical dimension to this study. Through these comparisons, the author is able to suggest changes in raw material procurement strategies. This is original research based on six years of sampling at the important Palaeolithic site.

Mousterian

Neanderthal

Middle Paleolithic

Lithic technology

Upper Paleolithic

Source

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Citations (8)

Foreword

Quaternary International (2003)

Keith Alverson

Mousterian

Middle Paleolithic

Neanderthal

Paleoanthropology

Assemblage (archaeology)

Lithic technology

Homo sapiens

Stone tool

Upper Paleolithic

Archaeological record

Hominidae

10.1016/s1040-6182(03)00110-1

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Citations (0)

The Middle Paleolithic of the Balkans: Industrial Variability, Human Biogeography, and Neanderthal Demise

Journal of World Prehistory (2023)

Tamara Dogandžić

Abstract Europe is characterized by an uneven record of Middle Paleolithic occupations. Specifically, large parts of southeastern Europe display markedly lower site densities and less intensive evidence of human presence than is found elsewhere; this has often resulted in the exclusion of the Balkans from debates related to Pleistocene human adaptation. The discrepancy stems either from the lower population densities of southeastern Europe or an imbalance in research across Europe. Additionally, our understanding of Balkan Middle Paleolithic stone tool industries suffers from the use of Mousterian labels defined when Bordian typology was the chief method of lithic analysis. Industrial facies then defined and still in use include Balkan Charentian, Levallois Mousterian, Micromousterian, Denticulate Mousterian; their relation with the rest of the Eurasian record was and remains unclear. This paper sets aside the issue of scarcity of Pleistocene occupations and tries to address Neanderthal biogeography, and variations in Neanderthal technological behavior and subsistence, based on the available record. It reviews the current Middle Paleolithic record in the Balkans, presents the apparent temporal and spatial trends, and presents the provisional biogeography of hominins, including scenarios for the demise of Neanderthals at or soon after the arrival of modern humans in Europe. The paper ends with a discussion of perspectives for future research arising from this analysis of the available record and proposes some hypotheses regarding the role of the Balkans in the overall context of the occupational history of western Eurasia in the Middle/Late Pleistocene.

Neanderthal

Middle Paleolithic

Mousterian

Demise

Upper Paleolithic

Archaeological record

10.1007/s10963-023-09179-1

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Citations (1)

Sink the Mousterian? Named stone tool industries (NASTIES) as obstacles to investigating hominin evolutionary relationships in the Later Middle Paleolithic Levant

Quaternary International (2014)

John J. Shea

Mousterian

Middle Paleolithic

Upper Paleolithic

Neanderthal

10.1016/j.quaint.2014.01.024

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Citations (101)

Dark Caves, Bright Visions: Life in Ice-Age Europe

Journal of Human Evolution (1986)

Randolph E. Donahue

Mousterian

Neanderthal

Middle Paleolithic

Lithic technology

Assemblage (archaeology)

Stone tool

Upper Paleolithic

Adaptive strategies

10.1016/s0047-2484(86)80022-7

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Citations (16)

Experimental and Archeological Observations of Northern Iberian Peninsula Middle Paleolithic Mousterian Point Assemblages. Testing the Potential Use of Throwing Spears Among Neanderthals

Vertebrate paleobiology and paleoanthroplogy series/Vertebrate paleobiology and paleoanthropology series (2016)

Joseba Ríos-Garaizar

Mousterian

Neanderthal

Middle Paleolithic

Spear

Paleoanthropology

Peninsula

Upper Paleolithic

10.1007/978-94-017-7602-8_15

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Citations (27)

Neanderthal last stand? Thoughts on Iberian refugia in late MIS 3

Journal of Quaternary Science (2020)

Lawrence Guy Straus

ABSTRACT The history of the idea of Neanderthal/Mousterian refugia on the Iberian Peninsula over the past three decades is reviewed. Despite the recent re‐datings of several key sites that have cast doubt on late survivals, it continues to seem to be the case that Aurignacian ( sensu lato ) industries appeared relatively early in northern Spain, but not in southern Spain or Portugal. Although arguments for extremely late survival in Gibraltar are questioned, new information from sites in Murcia and a more conservative reading of the Gorham's Cave record seem to support the thesis of late Middle Paleolithic survival and late early Upper Paleolithic arrival in the south. Major problems continue to be the lack of either Neanderthal or Cro‐Magnon human remains of late Middle Paleolithic or early Upper Paleolithic age in Iberia and the ambiguity of the Châtelperronian record in northern Spain.

Neanderthal

Mousterian

Aurignacian

Middle Paleolithic

Upper Paleolithic

Peninsula

Archaeological record

Chronology

10.1002/jqs.3252

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Citations (13)

Neanderthals of Crimea – Creative generalists of the late Middle Paleolithic. Contextualizing the leaf point industry Buran-Kaya III, Level C