June 2011, Daily News

Neanderthals Were Outnumbered to Death, Study Shows

By Dan McLerran   Tue, Jul 26, 2011

Researchers are concluding that the Neanderthals of southwestern Europe may have gone extinct approximately 40,000 years ago because, in large measure, they were simply overwhelmed by the rising numbers of modern humans around them. Like opposing forces in a field of limited resources, the group with the superior numbers and means prevails. It is an old and simple hypothesis about European Neanderthal extinction that, until now, had not been backed up with an extensive statistical study of hard evidence.

The study, conducted by Professor Sir Paul Mellars and Jennifer French of the Department of Archaeology at Cambridge University and published in the July 29th issue of Science, involved analyzing the density of Neanderthal and early modern human artifacts and occupation sites across the Dordogne region in southwestern France, an area that is well-known for the highest concentrations of archaeological sites bearing on Middle (300,000 to 30,000 yr. B.P.) to Upper (50,000 to 10,000 yr. B.P.) Paleolithic period human occupation. Focusing on the Neanderthal-to-Modern Human transition period of 55,000 - 35,000 B.P., the researchers analyzed frequencies of evidence of three successive distinct stone tool industries or "techno complexes" across sites in this time period and region: The Mousterian-of-Acheulian (MTA, 44,000 - 55,000 B.P.), the Chátelperronian (40,250-44,400 B.P.), and the Aurignacian (35,00-40,250 B.P.). The MTA and Chátelperronian industries are generally associated with the Neanderthals, whereas the Aurignacian is largely identified as that of the modern humans. The study also included an examination and analysis of the animal food remains at the sites. (continued below)

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mousterian point, a typical part of the toolkit used by Neanderthals in Paleolithic Europe. Courtesy Museum de Toulouse, France. Wikimedia Commons 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Drawing of Chatelperronian points, part of the toolkit of Neanderthals during the Upper Paleolithic period in present-day Europe. Wikimedia Commons

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Aurignacian micro-gravette, typical of the stone tool industry of modern humans in Upper Paleolithic Europe. Museum de Toulouse, France. Wikimedia Commons

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A rock-shelter site once inhabited by "Cro-Magnon Man", or modern humans of the Upper Paleolithic. Courtesy Semhur, Wikimedia Commons.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Reports Mellars and French, "the numbers of cave and rock-shelter sites (which account for more than 75% of the total recorded sites in our database) increase from ~26 for the MTA to ~31 in the Châtelperronian to ~108 in the Aurignacian. The numbers of recorded open-air sites increase from ~7 in the Châtelperronian to ~39 in the Aurignacian".  The evaluation of the data accumulated from this, according to their report, "suggest[s] an increase in overall population densities across the Neanderthal-to-Modern Human Transition [by a factor] of about 9 to 10", in favor of the modern human.  

A number of factors have been cited by scientists as explanations for the presumed superior survivability and adaptability of modern humans that theoretically may have led not only to their ability to exit their original African homeland some 60,000 years ago but also to their dramatic proliferation in numbers after arrival as compared to their Neanderthal cousins. Improved technology for hunting and food-processing and storage, better cohesion and social integration, increased exchange, the development of alliance networks, and better planning capacities, for example, all may have played a combined role in the ascendancy and dominance of modern humans. Moreover, a range of climatic changes, especially the sudden cooling that occurred around 40,000 B.P. E. as evidenced by oceanic records, may have presented a much greater survival challenge for Neanderthals as compared to their more adaptable modern human counterparts.

"In any event," says Mellars, "it was clearly this range of new technological and behavioural innovations which allowed the modern human populations to invade and survive in much larger population numbers than those of the preceding Neanderthals across the whole of the European continent. Faced with this kind of competition, the Neanderthals seem to have retreated initially into more marginal and less attractive regions of the continent (see image above, Neanderthal skull found in St. Michael's cave, Gibraltar, off the southern edge of Europe) and eventually – within a space of at most a few thousand years – for their populations to have declined to extinction – perhaps accelerated further by sudden climatic deterioration across the continent around 40,000 years ago."

Whether causation could be attributed to a single factor or a number of factors, however, it is clear from the Cambridge University study results that population numbers and density may have played a defining role. An increase by a factor of 9 or 10 in a relatively short time span, geologically speaking, is difficult to ignore.

"This estimate is at least broadly consistent with other indications of changing population numbers and densities between Neandertal and early modern human populations derived from recent DNA data and the relative intensities of human and cave-bear occupations in Central European sites," reports Mellars and French. "These data imply that numerical supremacy alone must have been a powerful, if not overwhelming, factor in direct demographic and territorial competition between modern humans and Neandertals." 

(Above left, map of maximum range (in brown) of modern humans by 30,000 yrs. B.P.  Wikimedia Commons)

Quotations are from the article, "Tenfold Population Increase in Western Europe at the Neandertal–to–Modern Human Transition," by P. Mellars; J.C. French at Cambridge University in Cambridge, UK, published in the July 29 issue of Science Magazine, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Cover Photo, Top Left: The original "old man of Cro-Magnon" skull, representing early modern humans of Paleolithic Europe. Courtesy Musée de l'Homme, Paris, France. Wikimedia Commons

Photo of Neanderthal skull found in St. Michael's cave courtesy Nathan Harig, Wikimedia Commons.

By Dan McLerran

As Founder and Editor of Popular Archaeology Magazine, Dan is a freelance writer and journalist specializing in archaeology.  He studied anthropology and archaeology in undergraduate and graduate school and has been an active participant on archaeological excavations in the U.S. and abroad.  He is the creator and administrator of Archaeological Digs, a popular weblog about archaeological excavation and field school opportunities.  

Comments(1):

1. Mousterian type tools in the USA

   Friday, July 29, 2011 rick

   There is now evidence being found in several states in the USA that there were toolmakers possibly before clovis that used the same technology as neanderthals. Although mainstream archaeology has chosen to ignore the artifacts they are none the less being found. Samples have been sent to British lithics experts who agreed the tools are a product of Levallis core preparations usually associated with neanderthal sites. One assemblage from Indiana and Tennessee is made up of thousands of tools and the cores that the tools were struck from. Cores in virtually every stage of reduction, core tools, hundreds of levallois points, blades, hand axes, burins, scrapers, ochres(abraded) of red and yellow, mortars, pestles, and more. There are literally every tool described in any of the late lower, middle and early upper paleolithic periods abroad right here in the USA. The sites are still intact as all that has been found are artifacts that have been revealed due to unusual flooding in the areas. The ground has been eroded to a level never seen before and the artifacts have been exposed at the surface. One British lithics teacher assciated with Sussex univ. in England has examined samples of the tools and written numerous US archaeologists to inquire about the finds and can get no response even from the Smithsonian. If the reader doubts what I am saying you can contact me at doninger@sbcglobal.net and I will gladly send you photos of the artifacts. The question is, "why is the mainstream willfully ignoring this evidence?". The tools have been posted on two public forums for over a year now on About.com's archaeology site called Levallois inthe USA and Mousterian in the USA. Several US archys have discredited and denied the possibility without seeing any of the evidence. The artifacts speak for themselves to any who care to see. Mousterian lithics are unique and certainly clearly distinguishable from any known North American industries from Clovis or later. This is a clearly identifiable Levallois "industry" made up of thousands of tools and cores waiting for the first archaeologist to take a serious look at the sites. Similar tools have been found in several other states and the mainstream has refused to acknowledge them as well but the Indiana assemblage is by far the largest assemblage of unambiguous pristine mousterian type artifacts to be found yet and I can prove it! I have them.......The illusive pre-clovis tool technology academia is searching for has already been found. Don't believe it? come and see or write me and I will show you....Doninger@sbcglobal.net.....respectfully, rickdoninger