A Safe Haven for Neanderthal Populations: Late Neanderthal Persistence due to Local Adaptation during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic Transition in Crimea

The Neanderthal extinction is not fully understood and there is no common consensus on the date of the demise of Neanderthals in Europe. In the Crimean peninsula, located in south-eastern Europe, there is evidence for a longer persistence. This thesis investigates the late Neanderthal persistence on the Crimean peninsula. The foraging radius and the settlement patterns of the Crimean Micoquian and the Western Crimean Mousterian are discussed together with analysis of the known radiocarbon dates to gain understanding of the correlation between them. To test the hypothesis that the foraging radius impacted the longer persistence of Neanderthals populations, secondary literature has been analyzed regarding the environmental, lithic and faunal assemblages. The results show that the foraging radius is difficult to determine but it did not have a major influence on the persistence of Neanderthals in Crimea. The radiocarbon datings together with the environmental data concur with the later...Show moreThe Neanderthal extinction is not fully understood and there is no common consensus on the date of the demise of Neanderthals in Europe. In the Crimean peninsula, located in south-eastern Europe, there is evidence for a longer persistence. This thesis investigates the late Neanderthal persistence on the Crimean peninsula. The foraging radius and the settlement patterns of the Crimean Micoquian and the Western Crimean Mousterian are discussed together with analysis of the known radiocarbon dates to gain understanding of the correlation between them. To test the hypothesis that the foraging radius impacted the longer persistence of Neanderthals populations, secondary literature has been analyzed regarding the environmental, lithic and faunal assemblages. The results show that the foraging radius is difficult to determine but it did not have a major influence on the persistence of Neanderthals in Crimea. The radiocarbon datings together with the environmental data concur with the later persistence of Neanderthal populations. Moreover, the Crimean Micoquian was highly adapted in Crimea and especially the mountainous region. The adaptation together with the seasonal movement of prey led to more interaction between Neanderthal populations, which resulted in a potentially higher fitness. This needs to be tested in future research by, for example, the extraction of aDNA from samples of soil of Late Middle Palaeolithic sites. The limitations with this method of testing are the lack of Neanderthal fossils dating to this late period and the presence of palimpsest in many of the Late Middle Palaeolithic sites. Additionally, Russian and Ukrainian literature from previous excavations needs to be translated and re-evaluated to gain more knowledge about the Crimean Middle Palaeolithic as a whole.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

A Safe Haven for Neanderthal Populations: Late Neanderthal Persistence due to Local Adaptation during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic Transition in Crimea