New clues to Neanderthal extinction

Neanderthals disappeared about 40,000 years ago, but the causes of this extinction are multiple and remain debated. Could certain populations of Neanderthals have been ousted by other groups of the same species? The analysis of the lithic industry in Spain tries to answer this question.

What are the factors responsible for the disappearance of Neanderthals ? This question is one of those that fascinate the general public the most in the field of anthropology, in particular because of the close cultural and kinship ties between Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens. Among the factors most often put forward are factors endogenous such as the cultural level but also the climate change as well as the arrival ofH. sapiens in eastern Europe. In study published in the journal Plos Onethe authors recall that the period during which Neanderthal disappeared in Europe extended between approximately -50,000 and -40,000 years ago. However, during this period, several technical and cultural patterns also appeared in Europe, some of which were introduced by H. sapiens while others were developed by various populations of Neanderthals.

Among the lithic industry and culture that characterize this period is the Châtelperronian, whose authors recall that it was identified between the Paris basin and the north of the peninsula Iberian. The attribution of theemergence from this complex to H. sapiens or at H. neanderthalensis is still debated although recent molecular and morphological analyzes currently favor the second hypothesis. In their article, the authors focused on the lithic industry present at the site of Aranbaltza II, in northwestern Spain. This Châtelperronian site was discovered in the middle of the 20th^and century and several excavation campaigns archaeological have been carried out there since. In their study, the authors analyzed more than 5,500 lithic remains mainly from flint. They explain that the main activity of men at this prehistoric site must have been stone cutting.

Remains of lithic industry characteristic of the Châtelperronian have been found at Aranbaltza II. © Rios-Garaizar et al, 2022

Extinction and replacement of Neanderthals

The authors’ major discovery at this site concerns the succession of industries and therefore of the prehistoric populations that occupied Aranbaltza II. The Châtelperronian industry described by the authors has no technological link with the Middle and Upper Paleolithic industry used by the previous populations of Neanderthal. They therefore deduce that the culture of the Neanderthals who produced the Châtelperronian industry of Aranbaltza II does not derive from ancestral cultures of the Iberian Peninsula. The authors propose the hypothesis that the Neanderthals who lived in the Spanish region of Cantabria died out or abandoned this area around 45,000 years ago. According to palynological data, a succession of climates very cold and temperate took place between 50,000 and 39,000 years ago. This probably led the Neanderthal populations to increase their territory and to move there more often, in particular to search for resources in ecosystems then become less productive.

The authors indicate that contact between small populations of Neanderthals over now vast territories may have led to an increase in inbreeding as well as genetic diseases. The presence of these Middle and Upper Paleolithic Neanderthals was therefore probably rare in Cantabria from 48,000 years ago. This decline would therefore have allowed Neanderthals from the south of France who had developed Châtelperronian technology to extend their range in the north of Spain. Their occupation of this territory was short-lived, however, and they were in turn replaced by H. sapiens arrived in Western Europe. This replacement pattern within the same species surely reflects, according to the authors, the trajectories of different Neanderthal populations before their extinction.