Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T20:26:04.710Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Troubling the Neandertals: A Reply to Zilhã and Trinkaus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Macro Langbroek
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

We cannot but agree with the basic contentions of Langbroek's paper that 1) the replacement of Neandertals by early modern humans in Europe is best understood from a perspective of historical contingency and 2) that it must have had a lot to do with the ‘very dynamic spatio-temporal redrawings of the population maps of Europe during the Weichsel glacial’ against the background of ‘the emergence of increasing climatological instability during the later part of OIS 3, with significant fluctuations at relatively short timescales’. This is the kind of approach we have been advocating to effectively supersede the reductionist ‘superiority’ paradigm that has dominated the literature on Neandertal extinction for the last twenty years.

Type
Discussion
Information
Archaeological Dialogues , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , December 2001 , pp. 142 - 151
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adcock, G.J., Dennis, E.S., Easteal, S., Huttley, G.A., Jermiin, L.S., Peacock, J. and Thorne, A., 2001: Mitochondrial DNA sequences in ancient Australians: implications for modern human origins, Proceedings of the national academy of sciences USA 98, 537–542.Google Scholar
van Andel, T., and Tzedakis, P.C., 1996: Palaeolithic landscapes of Europe and environs, 150,000–25,000 years ago. An overview, Quaternary science reviews 15, 481–500.Google Scholar
van Andel, T.H. and Tzedakis, P.C., 1998: Priority and opportunity. Reconstructing the European Middle Palaeolithic climate and landscape, in Bayley, J. (ed.), Science in archaeology. An agenda for the future, London, 37–45.Google Scholar
Arensburg, B., Tillier, A.M., Vandermeersch, B., Duday, H., Schepartz, L.A. and Rak, Y., 1989: A Middle Palaeolithic hyoid bone, Nature 338, 758–760.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bar-Yosef, O., and Belfer-Cohen, A., 1996: Another look at the Levantine Aurignacian, in Montet-White, A., Palma di Cesnola, A., and Valoch, K. (eds), The Upper Paleolithic: colloquia, XIII international congress of prehistoric and protohistoric sciences,Forlì,139–50.Google Scholar
Barton, N., 2000: Mousterian hearths and shellfish. Late Neanderthal activities on Gibraltar, in Stringer, C., Barton, R.N.E. and Finlayson, C. (eds), Neanderthals on the edge: 150th anniversary conference of the Forbes' Quarry discovery, Gibraltar,Oxford,211–220.Google Scholar
Binford, L., 1983: In pursuit of the past, London.Google Scholar
Binford, L., 1984: Faunal remains from Klasies River Mouth, New York.Google Scholar
Bocherens, H., Billiou, D., Mariotti, A., Patou-Mathias, M., Otte, M., Bonjean, D. and Toussaint, M., 1999: Palaeoenvironmental and palaeodietary implications of isotopic biochemistry of last interglacial Neanderthal and mammal bones in Scladina Cave (Belgium), Journal of archaeological science 26, 599–607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolus, M. and Conard, N.J., 2001: The late Middle Palaeolithic and earliest Upper Palaeolithic in central Europe and their relevance for the Out of Africa hypothesis, Quaternary international 75, 29–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bräuer, G., 2001: The ‘Out-of-Africa’ model and the question of regional continuity, in Tobias, P.V., Raath, M.A., Moggi-Cecchi, J., and Doyle, G.A. (eds), Humanity from African naissance to coming millennia, Florence and Johannesburg, 183–189.Google Scholar
Bräuer, G. and Stringer, C.B., 1997: Models, predictions, and perspectives on modern human origins, in Clark, G.A. and Willermet, C. (eds), Conceptual issues in modern human origins research, New York, 191–201.Google Scholar
Churchill, S.E. and Smith, F.H., 2000: A modern human humerus from the early Aurignacian of Vogelherdhöhle (Stetten, Germany), American journal of physical anthropology 112, 251–273.Google Scholar
Dansgaard, W., Johnsen, S.J., Clausen, H.B., Dahl-Jensen, D., Gundestrup, N.S., Hammer, C.U., Hvidberg, C.S., Setffensen, J.P., Sveinbjörnsdottir, A.E., Jouzel, J. and Bond, G., 1993: Evidence for general instability of past climate from a 250-kyr ice-core record, Nature 364, 218–220.Google Scholar
Errico, F. d', Zilhão, J., Julien, M., Baffer, D. and Pelegrin, J., 1998: Neandertal acculturation in western Europe? A critical review of the evidence and its interpretation, Current anthropology 39, S1–S44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Féblot-Augustins, J., 1999: Raw material transport patterns and settlement systems in the European Lower and Middle Palaeolithic: continuity, change and variability, in Roebroeks, W. and Gamble, C. (eds), The Middle Palaeolithic occupation of Europe, Leiden, 193–214.Google Scholar
Fizet, M., Mariotti, A., Bocherens, H., Lange-Badré, B., Vandermeersch, B., Borel, J. and Bellon, G., 1995: Effect of diet, physiology and climate on carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes of collagen in a Late Pleistocene anthropic palaeoecosystem: Marrillac, Charente, France, Journal of archaeological science 22, 67–79.Google Scholar
Fortea, J., 1995: Abrigo de La Viña. Informe y primera valoración de las campañas 1991 a 1994, in Excavaciones arqueológicas en Asturias 1991–94, Oviedo, 19–32.Google Scholar
Frayer, D.W., 1993: Evolution at the European edge. Neandertal and Upper Palaeolithic relationships, Préhistoire européene 2, 9–69.Google Scholar
Gamble, C., 1987: Man the shoveler. Alternative models for Middle Pleistocene colonization and occupation in northern latitudes, in Soffer, O. (ed.), The Pleistocene old world. Regional perspectives, New York, 81–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gagneux, P., Wills, C., Gerloff, U., Tautz, D., Morin, P.A., Boesch, C., Fruth, B., Hohmann, G., Ryder, O.A. and Woodruff, D.S., 1999: Mitochondrial sequences show diverse evolutionary histories of African hominoids, Proceedings of the national academy of sciences USA 96, 5077–5082.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gambier, D., 1992: Origine de l'homme moderne en Europe. Comparaison des données crâniennes en Europe centrale et occidentale, in Toussaint, M. (ed.), Cinq millions d'années. L'aventure humaine. Etudes et recherches archéologiques de l'Université de Liège 56, 269–284.Google Scholar
Gaudzinski, S., 1996: On bovid assemblages and their consequences for the knowledge of subsistence patterns in the Middle Palaeolithic, Proceedings of the prehistoric society 62, 19–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaudzinski, S., 1999: The faunal record of the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic of Europe. Remarks on human interference, in Roebroeks, W. and Gamble, C. (eds), The Middle Palaeolithic occupation of Europe, Leiden, 215–233.Google Scholar
Gaudzinski, S. and Roebroeks, W., 2000: Adults only. Reindeer hunting at the Middle Palaeolithic site Salzgitter Lebenstedt, northern Germany, Journal of human evolution 38, 497–521.Google Scholar
G.E.P.P. [Grupo para o Estudo do Paleolítico Português], 1983: A estação paleolítica de Vilas Ruivas (Ródão) – campanha de 1979, O arqueólogo Português, 4th series, 1, 15–38.Google Scholar
Grün, R., Spooner, N.A., Thorne, A., Mortimer, G., Simpson, J.J., McCulloch, M.T., Taylor, L., and Curnoe, D., 2000: Age of the Lake Mungo 3 skeleton, reply to Bowler and Magee and to Gillespie and Roberts, Journal of human evolution 38, 733–741.Google Scholar
Guthrie, R.D., 2001: Origin and causes of the mammoth steppe. A story of cloud cover, woolly mammal tooth pits, buckles, and inside-out Beringia, Quaternary science reviews 20, 549–574.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guthrie, R.D. and van Kolfschoten, T., 2000: Neither warm and moist, nor cold and arid. The ecology of the Mid Upper Palaeolithic, in Roebroeks, W., Mussi, M., Svoboda, J. and Fennema, K. (eds), Hunters of the golden age, Oxford, 13–20.Google Scholar
Haeserts, P. and Teyssandier, N., 2001: Les niveaux Paléolithique supérieur ancien (1 à 4) de Willendorf II (Basse-Autriche). Contribution au contexte chronostratigraphique des débuts du Paléolithique supérieur en Europe centrale, in XIV congrès de l'union internationale des sciences pré et proto-historiques, Liège, 2–8 Septembre 2001, Pré-actes, Liège, 140.Google Scholar
Hublin, J.J., 1990: Les peuplements paléolithiques de l'Europe. Un point de vue paléobiogéographique, in Farizy, C. (ed.), Paléolithique moyen récent et Paléolithique supérieur ancien en Europe, mémoires du Musée de préhistoire de l'Ile de France 3, 29–37.Google Scholar
Hublin, J.J., 2000: Modern-nonmodern hominid interactions. A Mediterranean perspective, in Bar-Yosef, O. and Pilbeam, D. (eds), The geography of Neandertals and modern humans in Europe and the greater Mediterranean. Peabody Museum bulletin 8, 157–182.Google Scholar
Hublin, J.J., Barroso Ruiz, C., Medina Lara, P., Fontugne, M. and Reyss, J.L., 1995: The Mousterian site of Zafarraya (Andalucia, Spain). Dating and implications on the Palaeolithic peopling process of western Europe, Comptes rendus de l'académie des sciences de Paris 321, 931–937.Google Scholar
Jaubert, J., 1999: The Middle Palaeolithic of Quercy (southwest France): palaeo-environment and human settlements, in Roebroeks, W. and Gamble, C. (eds), The Middle Palaeolithic occupation of Europe, Leiden, 93–106.Google Scholar
Johnsen, S.J., Claussen, H.B., Dansgaard, W., Fuhrer, K., Gundestrup, N., Hammer, C.U., Iversen, P., Jouzel, J., Stauffer, B. and Steffensen, J.P., 1992: Irregular glacial interstadials recorded in a new Greenland ice core, Nature 359, 311–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jorde, L.B., Bamshad, M.J. and Rogers, A.R., 1998: Using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA markers to reconstruct human evolution, BioEssays 20, 126–136.3.0.CO;2-R>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kolen, J., 1999: Hominids without homes. On the nature of Middle Palaeolithic settlement in Europe, in Roebroeks, W. and Gamble, C. (eds), The Middle Palaeolithic occupation of Europe, Leiden, 139–175.Google Scholar
Kolen, J., De Loecker, D., Groenendijk, A. and De Warrimont, J-P., 1999: Middle Palaeolithic surface scatters: how informative? A case study from southern Limburg (the Netherlands), in Roebroeks, W. and Gamble, C. (eds), The Middle Palaeolithic occupation of Europe, Leiden, 177–191.Google Scholar
Kozlowski, J., 1979: Le Bachokirien – la plus ancienne industrie du Paléolithique supérieur en Europe, Prace archeologiczne 28, 77–99.Google Scholar
Krings, M., Stone, A., Schmitz, R., Krainitzki, H., Stoneking, M. and Pääbo, S., 1997: Neandertal DNA sequences and the origin of modern humans, Cell 90, 19–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krings, M., Capelli, C., Tschentscher, F., Geisert, H., Meyer, S., von Haeseler, A., Grossschmidt, K., Possnert, G., Paunović, M. and Pääbo, S., 2000: A view of Neandertal genetic diversity, Nature genetics 26, 144–146.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lieberman, D.E., and Shea, J.J., 1994: Behavioral differences between archaic and modern humans in the Levantine Mousterian, American anthropologist 96, 300–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McBrearty, S. and Brooks, A.S., 2000: The revolution that wasn't. A new interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior, Journal of human evolution 39, 453–563.Google Scholar
Mellars, P., 2000: Châtelperronian chronology and the case for Neanderthal/modern human ‘acculturation’ in western Europe, in Stringer, C., Barton, R.N.E. and Finlayson, J.C. (eds), Neanderthals on the edge, Oxford, 33–40.Google Scholar
Movius, H.M., 1966: The hearths of the Upper Périgordian and Aurignacian horizons at the Abri Pataud, Les Eyzies (Dordogne), and their possible significance, in Howell, F. C. (ed.), Recent advances in paleoanthropology. American anthropologist special publication 68(2), 296–325.Google Scholar
Mussi, M., 1999: The Neanderthals in Italy. A tale of many caves, in Roebroeks, W. and Gamble, C. (eds), The Middle Palaeolithic occupation of Europe, Leiden, 49–80.Google Scholar
Mussi, M., 2000: Heading south: the Gravettian colonisation of Italy, in Roebroeks, W., Mussi, M., Svoboda, J. and Fennema, K. (eds), Hunters of the golden age, Oxford, 355–374.Google Scholar
Niewoehner, W.A., 2000: The functional anatomy of Late Pleistocene and recent human carpometacarpal and metacarpophalangeal articulations, Ph.D. thesis, university of New Mexico, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Nordborg, M., 1998: On the probability of Neanderthal ancestry, American journal of human genetics 63, 1237–1240.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ovchinnikov, I., Götherström, A., Romanova, G.P., Kharitonov, V.M., Lidén, K., and Goodwin, W., 2000: Molecular analysis of Neandertal DNA from the northern Caucasus, Nature 404, 490–493.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perlés, C., 2000: Greece, 30,000–20,000 B.P., in, Roebroeks, W., Mussi, M., Svoboda, J. and Fennema, K. (eds), Hunters of the golden age, Oxford, 375–397.Google Scholar
Pettitt, P.B., 1999: Disappearing from the world. An archaeological perspective on Neanderthal extinction, Oxford journal of archaeology 18, 217–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettitt, P.B., 2000: Chronology of the Mid Upper Palaeolithic. The radiocarbon evidence, in Roebroeks, W., Mussi, M., Svoboda, J. and Fennema, K. (eds), Hunters of the golden age, Oxford, 21–30.Google Scholar
Pilbeam, D., 1998: Afterword, in Akazawa, T., Aoki, K. and Bar-Yosef, O. (eds), Neandertals and modern humans in western Asia, New York, 523–527.Google Scholar
Raposo, L., 2000: The Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition in Portugal, in Stringer, C.B., Barton, R.N.E. and Finlayson, J.C. (eds), Neanderthals on the edge, Oxford, 95–110.Google Scholar
Relethford, J.H., 2001: Genetics and the search for modern human origins, New York.Google Scholar
Révillion, S., 1994: Les industries laminaires du Paléolithique moyen en Europe septentrionale. L'example des gisements de Saint-Germain-des-Vaux/Port-Racine (Manche), de Seclin (Nord) et de Riencourt-les-Bapaume (Pas-de-Calais), Villeneuve d'Ascq (Publications du CERP 5).Google Scholar
Richards, M.P., Pettitt, P.B., Trinkaus, E., Smith, F.H., Paunović, M., and Karavanić, I., 2000: Neandertal diet at Vindija and Neandertal predation. The evidence from stable isotopes, Proceedings of the national academy of sciences USA 97, 7663–7666.Google Scholar
Richards, M.P., Pettitt, P.B., Stiner, M.C. and Trinkaus, E., 2001: Stable isotope evidence for increasing dietary breadth in the European Mid-Upper Palaeolithic, Proceedings of the national academy of sciences USA 98, 6528–6532.Google Scholar
Richter, D., Waiblinger, J., Rink, W.J. and Wagner, G.A., 2000: Thermoluminiscence, electron spin resonance and 14C-dating of the late Middle and early Upper Palaeolithic site of Geißenklösterle cave in southern Germany, Journal of archaeological science 27, 71–89.Google Scholar
Roberts, R.G., Jones, R. and Smith, M.A., 1990: Thermoluminiscence dating of a 50,000 year old human occupation site in northern Australia, Nature 345, 153–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roebroeks, W., 2000: A marginal matter: the human occupation of northwestern Europe – 30,000 to 20,000 years B.P., in Roebroeks, W., Mussi, M., Svoboda, J. and Fennema, K. (eds), Hunters of the golden age, Oxford, 299–312.Google Scholar
Roebroeks, W., Kolen, J. and Rensink, E., 1988: Planning depth, anticipation and the organization of Middle Palaeolithic technology. The ‘archaic natives’ meet Eve's descendants, Helinium 28, 17–34.Google Scholar
Roebroeks, W. and Tuffreau, A., 1999: Palaeoenvironment and settlement patterns of the northwest European Middle Palaeolithic, in Roebroeks, W. and Gamble, C. (eds), The Middle Palaeolithic occupation of Europe, Leiden, 121–138.Google Scholar
Ruff, C.B., Trinkaus, E. and Holliday, T.W., 1997: Body mass and encephalization in Pleistocene Homo, Nature 387, 173–176.Google Scholar
Simmons, T., 1994: Archaic and modern Homo sapiens in the contact zones. Evolutionary schematics and model predictions, in Nitecki, M.H. and Nitecki, D.V. (eds), Origins of anatomically modern humans, New York, 201–225.Google Scholar
Smith, F.H., 1994: Samples, species, and speculations in the study of modern human origins, in Nitecki, M.H. and Nitecki, D.V. (eds), Origins of anatomically modern humans, New York, 227–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, F.H., and Trinkaus, E., 1991: Les origines de l'homme moderne en Europe centrale. Un cas de continuité, in Hublin, J.J. and Tillier, A.M. (eds), Aux origines d'Homo sapiens, Nouvelle encyclopédie Diderot, Paris, 251–290.Google Scholar
Smith, F.H., Trinkaus, E., Pettitt, P.B., Karavanić, I. and Paunović, M., 1999: Direct radiocarbon dates for Vindija G1 and Velika Pećina Late Pleistocene hominid remains, Proceedings of the national academy of science USA 96, 12281–12286.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Street, M. and Terberger, T., 2000: The German Upper Palaeolithic 35,000–15,000 New B.P. dates and insights with emphasis on the Rhineland, in Roebroeks, W., Mussi, M., Svoboda, J. and Fennema, K. (eds), Hunters of the golden age, Oxford, 281–297.Google Scholar
Street, M. and Terberger, T., 2001: The chronology of the Aurignacian and the transitional technocomplexes, in XIV congrès de l'union internationale des sciences pré et proto-historiques, Liège, 2–8 Septembre 2001, Pré-actes,Liège,137.Google Scholar
Stringer, C., 1994: Out of Africa - a personal history, in Nitecki, M.H. and Nitecki, D.V. (eds), Origins of anatomically modern humans, New York, 149–172.Google Scholar
Stringer, C. and Gamble, C., 1993: In search of the Neanderthals, solving the puzzle of human origins, London.Google Scholar
Stringer, C. and McKie, R., 1996: African exodus, the origins of modern humanity, London.Google Scholar
Svoboda, J., Ložek, V. and Vlček, E., 1996: Hunters between east and west, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tattersall, I. and Schwartz, J.H., 1999: Hominids and hybrids. The place of Neanderthals in human evolution, Proceedings of the national academy of sciences USA 96, 7117–7119.Google Scholar
Thorne, A., Grün, R., Mortimer, G., Spooner, N.A., Simpson, J.J., McCulloch, M., Taylor, L. and Curnoe, D., 1999: Australia's oldest human remains. Age of the Lake Mungo 3 skeleton, Journal of human evolution 36, 591–612.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trinkaus, E., 1985: Pathology and the posture of the La Chapelle-aux-Saints Neandertal, American journal of physical anthropology 67, 19–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trinkaus, E., 2000: The ‘robusticity transition’ revisited, in Stringer, C., Barton, R.N.E., and Finlayson, J.C. (eds), Neanderthals on the edge, Oxford, 227–236.Google Scholar
Trinkaus, E., in press: Paleobiological perspectives on the early Upper Paleolithic human transition in the Old World, Bulletins et mémoires de la société d'anthropologie de Paris.Google Scholar
Trinkaus, E. and Shipman, P., 1993: The Neandertals. Changing the image of mankind, London.Google Scholar
Trinkaus, E., Churchill, S.E., Ruff, C.B. and Vandermeersch, B., 1999: Long bone shaft robusticity and body proportions of the Saint-Césaire 1 Châtelperronian Neandertal, Journal of archaeological science 26, 753–773.Google Scholar
Trinkaus, E. and Zilhão, J., 1999: A correction to the commentary of Tattersall and Schwartz concerning the interpretation of the Lagar Velho 1 child, http://www.ipa.min-cultura.pt/news/noticias/lapedo/lapedo-corrections, Instituto Português de Arqueologia.Google Scholar
Trinkaus, E., Zilhão, J. and Duarte, C., 2001: O Menino do Lapedo: Lagar Velho 1 and perceptions of the Neandertals, Archaeological dialogues 8, 49–69.Google Scholar
Vandermeersch, B., 1995: Homo sapiens sapiens. Ce que disent les fossiles, La recherche 26, 614–620.Google Scholar
Wall, J.D., 2000: Detecting ancient admixture in humans using sequence polymorphism data, Genetics 154, 1271–1279.Google Scholar
Weaver, A.G.H., 2001: The cerebellum and cognitive evolution in Pliocene and Pleistocene hominids, Ph.D. thesis, university of New Mexico Am Arbor.Google Scholar
Wolpoff, M.H., Hawks, J., Frayer, D.W. and Hunley, K., 2001: Modern human ancestry at the peripheries. A test of the replacement theory, Science 291, 293–297.Google Scholar
Zilhão, J., 1993: Le passage du Paléolithique moyen au Paléolithique supérieur dans le Portugal, in Cabrera, V. (ed.), El orígen del hombre moderno en el Suroeste de Europa, Madrid, 127–145.Google Scholar
Zilhão, J., 2000: The Ebro frontier. A model for the late extinction of Iberian Neanderthals, in Stringer, C., Barton, R.N.E. and Finlayson, J.C. (eds), Neanderthals on the edge, Oxford, 111–122.Google Scholar
Zilhão, J., 2001: Middle Paleolithic settlement patterns in Portugal, in Conard, N. (ed.), Settlement dynamics of the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age, Tübingen, 597–608.Google Scholar
Zilhão, J., 2001: Anatomically archaic, behaviorally modern. The last Neanderthals and their destiny, Drieëntwintigste Kroon-voordracht, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Zilhão, J., and d'Errico, F., 1999a: The chronology and taphonomy of the earliest Aurignacian and its implications for the understanding of Neandertal extinction, Journal of world prehistory 13, 1–68.Google Scholar
Zilhão, J., and d'Errico, F., 1999b: Reply, in the Neanderthal problem continued, Current anthropology 40, 355–364.Google Scholar
Zubrow, E., 1989: The demographic modelling of Neanderthal extinction, in Mellars, P. and Stringer, C. (eds), The human revolution, Edinburgh, 212–231.Google Scholar