Updating Neanderthals
Understanding Behavioural Complexity in the Late Middle Palaeolithic
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Updating Neanderthals: Understanding Behavioral Complexity in the Late Middle Paleolithic provides comprehensive knowledge on Neanderthals who lived throughout the European and Asian continents. The book synthesizes historical information about the study of Middle Paleolithic populations and presents current debates about their genetics, subsistence, technology, social and cognitive behaviors. It focuses on the last phase of Neanderthal settlements and presents the main patterns of modern humans across Europe. Written by international experts on the Middle Paleolithic who have conducted innovative studies in the last three decades, this book explores the implications of interactions between different human species, including Neanderthals, Denisovans and Sapiens. In addition, the book discusses the diversity and variability of human adaptations and behaviors in the changing climate and environment of the Late Pleistocene, and the relationship between these behaviors, demography and cognitive capabilities.
Key Features
- Offers a comprehensive update on the variability and diversity of Neanderthal behaviors during the Late Pleistocene
- Presents an interdisciplinary reconstruction of Neanderthals by assessing archaeology, paleontology, paleoecology, anthropology, genetics and cognition
- Reviews the reliability of archaeological data and the theoretical and methodological advances of the last 30 years
- Discusses the most debated Neanderthal themes, such as demography, diet, socio-economy and art
Readership
Researchers in evolutionary biology, archaeology, and paleoecology. Advanced undergraduate and graduate students in Paleolithic, human evolution, or paleoecological studies
Table of Contents
- Cover
- Title page
- Table of Contents
- Copyright
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Cover caption
- Chapter 1: Updating Neanderthals: Taking stock of more than 160 years of studies
- Abstract
- Acknowledgements
- 1: Discovery, first studies, and the illustration of the dumb ape
- 2: The main scientific debates between 1930 and 1980: Anthropological and cultural data
- 3: The end of the 20th century
- 4: The 21st century: Updating Neanderthals
- 5: From brutality to rehabilitation and narration
- References
- Chapter 2: The climatic and environmental context of the Late Pleistocene
- Abstract
- Acknowledgements
- 1: Introduction
- 2: Orbital and abrupt climate changes through the Late Pleistocene
- 3: Vegetation response to Late Pleistocene climate changes
- 4: How did Neanderthals cope with climate changes?
- 5: Final remarks
- References
- Chapter 3: Diet and ecological interactions in the Middle and Late Pleistocene
- Abstract
- Acknowledgements
- 1: Introduction
- 2: Dietary ecology of animals and Neanderthals
- 3: Complex interactions between Neanderthals and animals
- 4: Final remarks
- References
- Chapter 4: Different species on the horizon: The Denisova hominins
- Abstract
- 1: Denisova cave and the Altai (overview)
- 2: Denisovan fossils from Denisova cave
- 3: Xiahe
- 4: Denisovan genetics
- 5: Other Denisovans?
- 6: Final remarks
- References
- Chapter 5: Neanderthals: Anatomy, genes, and evolution
- Abstract
- Acknowledgements
- 1: Introduction
- 2: What are Neanderthal traits?
- 3: Two explanatory evolutionary models
- 4: Evolutionary anatomy of the Neanderthal phenotype
- 5: Evolutionary morphology of Neanderthal characters
- 6: Phase 1. Origin of H. heidelbergensis (s.s.)
- 7: Phase 2. Origin of H. neanderthalensis
- 8: Final remarks
- References
- Chapter 6: The Neanderthal brain: Biological and cognitive evolution
- Abstract
- 1: How to investigate a palaeo-brain: Tools and methods
- 2: The molecular basis of brain evolution in Neanderthal and H. sapiens: DNA and RNA (genes, polymorphisms, and noncoding, regulatory elements)
- 3: Not only technology: The graphical record of the Neanderthals as a window on their cognitive traits
- 4: Cognitive studies and archaeological evidence for the creation of meaning
- 5: Final remarks
- References
- Chapter 7: Selection versus opportunism: A view from Neanderthal subsistence strategies
- Abstract
- Acknowledgements
- 1: Introduction
- 2: Selection at a regional scale
- 3: Selection at a local scale
- 4: The hunter’s choice
- 5: Selection within animal carcasses
- 6: Diversification of the diet and the exploitation of nonungulate animals
- 7: Final remarks
- References
- Chapter 8: Small animal use by Neanderthals
- Abstract
- Acknowledgements
- 1: Introduction
- 2: Rabbits and hares
- 3: Birds
- 4: Tortoises
- 5: Aquatic resources
- 6: Final remarks
- Author contributions
- References
- Chapter 9: The use of plants by Neanderthals as food, medicine, and raw materials
- Abstract
- 1: Introduction
- 2: Methods used in recovery of evidence for plant use
- 3: Archaeological evidence for plants
- 4: Behavioural implications of the plant evidence
- 5: Final remarks
- References
- Chapter 10: Neanderthal technological variability: A wide-ranging geographical perspective on the final Middle Palaeolithic
- Abstract
- Acknowledgements
- 1: The ‘Mousterian debate’ today
- 2: Concepts and abbreviations
- 3: The Levant
- 4: The eastern regions: From the Altai to Eastern Europe
- 5: Central Europe
- 6: North-western Europe and southern France
- 7: Mediterranean Europe
- 8: Neanderthal variability
- 9: Final remarks
- References
- Chapter 11: The organisation of living spaces in Neanderthal campsites
- Abstract
- Acknowledgement
- 1: Introduction
- 2: Constructing the paradigm: What does a hunter–gatherer camp look like?
- 3: Ethnographic concepts, archaeological facts
- 4: Spatial units in Middle Palaeolithic sites
- 5: Beyond activity areas: Time uncertainties in campsite layout
- 6: Final remarks
- References
- Chapter 12: Fire among Neanderthals
- Abstract
- Acknowledgements
- 1: Introduction
- 2: Background to research on European Middle Palaeolithic fire: History, archaeological evidence, and debates
- 3: Methods and techniques
- 4: Fire among Neanderthals
- 5: Final remarks
- Author contributions
- References
- Chapter 13: ‘Art’: Neanderthal symbolic graphic behaviour
- Abstract
- 1: Portable graphic symbolism
- 2: Parietal graphic symbolism
- 3: Cognitive implications
- 4: Final remarks
- References
- Chapter 14: Spiritual and symbolic activities of Neanderthals
- Abstract
- Acknowledgements
- 1: Introduction
- 2: Neanderthal funerary activities
- 3: Marine shells and pigment use
- 4: Wings and feathers
- 5: Raptor claws
- 6: Non-utilitarian objects, curiosa
- 7: Appropriation of the darkness of the underground world
- 8: Final remarks
- References
- Chapter 15: Beyond European boundaries: Neanderthals in the Armenian Highlands and the Caucasus
- Abstract
- Acknowledgements
- 1: Eco-geography and Pleistocene palaeoenvironment of the Armenian Highlands and the Caucasus
- 2: Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Armenian Highlands and the Caucasus. Site types, chronology, and distribution
- 3: Middle Palaeolithic technological concepts, traditions or cultural features, and the regional sequence
- 4: Middle Palaeolithic technological organisation, land use, and regional artefact discard patterns
- 5: Middle Palaeolithic hunter–gatherer subsistence and hunting strategies and use of fire
- 6: Art and symbolic behaviour? Modified cave bear bones and teeth from Middle Palaeolithic deposits in the Armenian Highlands and the Caucasus
- 7: The problem of replacement of Neanderthals by Homo sapiens in the study area
- 8: Final remarks
- References
- Chapter 16: Methodological advances in Neanderthal identification, phylogeny, chronology, mobility, climate, and diet
- Abstract
- 1: Introduction
- 2: Neanderthals and their contemporaries
- 3: The radiocarbon dating and the last Neanderthal. Present status quo
- 4: Reconstructing Neanderthal’s way of life (diet, habitat, weaning, mobility)
- 5: Final remarks
- References
- Chapter 17: The arrival of Homo sapiens in the Near East and Europe
- Abstract
- Acknowledgements
- 1: Introduction
- 2: The Initial Upper Palaeolithic (IUP)
- 3: The Early Upper Palaeolithic (EUP)
- 4: The transitional industries
- 5: Final remarks
- References
- Afterword—From a homogeneous population to a great diversity: Discussing perspectives on Middle Palaeolithic studies for the coming years
- Index
Product details
- No. of pages: 382
- Language: English
- Copyright: © Academic Press 2022
- Published: June 28, 2022
- Imprint: Academic Press
- Paperback ISBN: 9780128214282
- eBook ISBN: 9780128214299
About the Editors
Francesca Romagnoli
Francesca Romagnoli, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain. She is specialized in the study of Neanderthal socio-economy. Her research is aimed at understanding adaptations and diversity of cultural behaviors in European Neanderthals, with a special focus in coastal adaptations. She has published innovative research on Neanderthal shell technology, site formation processes, and the relationships between human mobility, technological costs, and stone tool resources.
Affiliations and Expertise
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Florent Rivals
Florent Rivals, PhD, ICREA is a Research Professor at the Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Tarragona, Spain. He is specialized in the study of Neanderthal paleoecology. His research focuses on the impact of climate-driven environmental changes on humans, and Neanderthals in particular. He has published significant papers aimed to reconstruct ancient environments, tracking shifts related to climatic changes, and understanding hominin behavioral strategies in different ecological settings.
Affiliations and Expertise
Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Tarragona, Spain
Stefano Benazzi
Stefano Benazzi, PhD, is a Full Professor at the University of Bologna, Department of Cultural Heritage, in Bologna, Italy. He is specialized in the study of Neanderthal skeletal morphology. His research is aimed at understanding the time and mode of the biological and cultural shifts that led to the demise of the autochthonous Neanderthals and their replacement by modern humans. He has published significant papers aimed to assess the taxonomical affiliation of isolated human teeth, to evaluate Neanderthal and modern human morphological variability, and to track the earliest arrival of modern humans in Europe.
Affiliations and Expertise
Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy