When in doubt, map it out

Jordi Serangeli & Michael Bolus, Out of Europe – The dispersal of a successful European hominin form. Quatär 55 (2008): 83-98

            In their article, Out of Europe – The dispersal of a successful European hominin form, Jordi Serangeli & Michael Bolus map the geographical distribution of Pre-Neanderthal, Early Neanderthal, and classical Neanderthal remains in an effort to discover a core area of Neanderthal occupation. By mapping 183 sites, the authors discern southern Europe as a core area of continuous occupation. They postulate that this region served as a launching point of subsequent dispersal into the Near East and central Asia. In conjunction with the assertion that Neandertals evolved in relatively warm southern Europe, Serangeli and Bolus refute theories of Neanderthal cold adaptation, attributing the presence of Neanderthal remains in cooler climates as only peripheral to this warmer core region.

            The authors point to an absence of ancestors with Neanderthal traits outside of Europe as key evidence for Neanderthal evolution taking place on the continent in isolation from other humans. Through analysis of their map, the authors distinguish southern Europe as the area where Neanderthals lived continuously and exclude northern and central Europe for the fact of depopulation during glacial periods.

Serangeli and Bolus support their hypothesis of Europe specific adaptation with various bit of evidence, attributing Neanderthal morphology instead to requirements of high mobility and close contact hunting strategies. Among their southern European adaptations they point out that no other major extinctions accompanied Neanderthal expansion, citing a low population density adaptation as a contributing factor. They also describe the low number or bone and antler artifacts as a result of heavier reliance on wood tools, readily available in warmer southern Europe, as well as a lack of dwelling structures and heavy footwear, both less crucial in the south. The fact that Neanderthals survived longest in southern Europe is also pointed to as evidence of their being most suited to this region.

(Serangeli & Bolus 2008)

Serangeli and Bolus also address the question of whether Neanderthals, in their expansion “Out of Europe” meet Anatomically Modern Humans expanding Out of Africa, suggesting a situation of alternating occupation, not coexistence. In agreement with their Europe adapted view of Neanderthal evolution, Serangeli and Bolus suggest the Neanderthal occupation in the Near East occurred during cooler, more humid periods, reminiscent of southern Europe conditions, vacating the region during warmer, drier times when AMHs moved in. A similar reaction to less favorable conditions is suggested with regards to the vacation of northern Europe. While AHMs eventually replaced Neanderthals in Europe, the authors point out the opposite appears to be true in the Near East.

Serangeli and Bolus’ use of mapping in order to uncover a core Neanderthal region is a logical and natural step in the quest for answers regarding Neanderthal evolution. The clean and straightforward methodology is easy to understand and difficult to argue with, it is quite persuasive. The authors do however make a broad assumption regarding the completeness of the data and presume the pattern uncovered through excavation truly reflects Neanderthal populations despite an acknowledgement of uneven interest in Paleolithic archaeology across the continent. Using an absence evidence for bone/ antler tools, hard footwear, and shelters in northern Europe as evidence for southern adaptation is not the most rock solid line of argumentation, but given the general paucity of such data it can be forgiven as support for a well laid out map.