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Neanderthals and the modern human colonization of Europe

Nature volume 432, pages 461–465 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

The fate of the Neanderthal populations of Europe and western Asia has gripped the popular and scientific imaginations for the past century. Following at least 200,000 years of successful adaptation to the glacial climates of northwestern Eurasia, they disappeared abruptly between 30,000 and 40,000 years ago, to be replaced by populations all but identical to modern humans. Recent research suggests that the roots of this dramatic population replacement can be traced far back to events on another continent, with the appearance of distinctively modern human remains and artefacts in eastern and southern Africa.

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Figure 1: Apparent dispersal routes of the earliest anatomically and behaviourally modern populations across Europe, as reflected in the archaeological data.
Figure 2: Early Aurignacian carved ivory animal and human figures from sites in southern Germany.
Figure 3: Tool forms from classic Aurignacian and proto-Aurignacian sites.

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful to R. Foley, P. Forster, J.-J. Hublin, J. Kozlowski, C. Stringer and other colleagues for discussions of points raised in the paper, and to D. Kemp for assistance with the illustrations. Research grants were provided by the British Academy and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

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  1. Department of Archaeology, Cambridge University, Downing Street, CB2 3DZ, Cambridge, UK

    Paul Mellars

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Mellars, P. Neanderthals and the modern human colonization of Europe. Nature 432, 461–465 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03103

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