B01: Variability of the use of Resources. Spatial Exploitation by Late Neanderthals and Early Modern Humans in Europe

Project management: Prof. Dr. Harald Floss, Prof. Dr. Nicholas Conard

Scientific employees: Markus Siegris, Judy Yun Chang, Klaus Herkert

Summary

During the period between 50.000 and 30.000 before present Europe was affected by profound demographic and socio-cultural changes. After successfully existing for more than 200.000 years Neanderthals became extinct, but not before passing on a small part of their genetic code to the anatomically modern human population (Green et. al. 2010; compare Serre/Pääbo 2006).
Around this time anatomically modern humans first entered Europe and subsequently spread out over the continent. The modalities, the speed and the dynamics of this expansion of Homo sapiens are still a matter of discussion. Equally the reasons for the extinction of the Neanderthals and the question of how the two different kinds of humans met and which kinds of contact took place have to be studied.
The analysis of social networks related to resources is an innovative approach for the study of the Neanderthal/ Homo sapiens complex. The aspect of resource use and exploitation, previously rarely considered, has a high potential to shed new light on the transition between Middle- and Late Palaeolithic, a decisive period of human history.

Scientific Aims

By making new find complexes available and by detailed comparisons using the most advanced methods to identify parameters of behaviour in societies of the last Neanderthals and the first anatomically modern humans considerable new insights can be expected. The focus will be on recently excavated settlements of the end of the Middle and beginning of the Late Palaeolithic periods in Burgundy (Germolles, Saint-Martin-sous-Montaigu, Solutré, Fontaines: Floss) and the Swabian Jura (Hohler Fels near Schelklingen, Geißenklösterle, Vogelherd, Hohlenstein: Conard), where especially the strategies of use of flint as a raw-material will be explored. Fundamental for the acquisition of new scientific knowledge is a correct designation of the kind and origin of raw-materials used to produce stone tools. This will be achieved by a combination of a variety of archaeological, petrographical and geo-chemical methods of analysis. In addition the use of intangible resources will be addressed, in our case mainly relating to aspects of technology and art. In this respect the imparting of knowledge by contacts between groups and by migration is in the focus of interest. Taking additionally evidence for the use of floral and faunal resources into account, specific ResourceComplexes of Neanderthal and Homo sapiens groups will be identifiable. Their analysis and comparison will serve to shed new light on the specific socio-cultural dynamics of the two different populations.

The first aim is to identify movements and migrations of late Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens by determining and comparing the resources that were in use. This will allow a reconstruction of mobility and territorial behaviour of the respective groups and the testing of existing hypotheses about contacts or tendencies of expansion.

2.Hypotheses about processes of migration concerning the dominating importance of the Danubian Corridor (Conard) and the Rhine-Rhône-Axis (Floss), previously formulated by the project managers, have to be tested. An interesting and fascinating side aspect is, that both regions used for case studies were connected by these water networks already during the Pleistocene, thus justifying and facilitating a concerted and comparative approach to their analysis.

3. A third aim will be to apply the information gained about resource use and specific technological solutions on the analysis of the typical assemblages of artefacts of late Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens within the respective regions of the case studies. The assemblages will be compared, as well as the development of these complexes of technology in the course of time. The determination of differences or similarities in the use of resources or the knowledge about them will help to identify corresponding differences and similarities of traditions, thus contributing to the understanding of the relationship between the two different kinds of humans.

4. Finally hypotheses about a higher degree of spatial flexibility and more complex social networks distinguishing Homo sapiens from Neanderthals have to be tested. It is assumed that these factors gave a decisive advantage to Homo sapiens and in the end led to the extinction of Neanderthals. The supposedly higher developed social networks of Homo sapiens presumably will have affected the efficiency of resource use.

Impact for the Collaborative Research Centre

Project B 01 expands the chronological frame of the Collaborative Research Centre into the Palaeolithic period. It points out the basic cultural dimension of resource use in hunter and gatherer societies. By the fundamental character of its argumentation it provides a distinctive cornerstone in regard to contents, as well as to chronology for the centre.

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