Resumen de Zweite Thomsen-Vorlesung: Wie modern waren Neanderthaler?
Since the Western world first became aware of Neanderthals this Pleistocene human has been a regular focus of both public and specialist interest. In fact, we know far more about Neanderthals than we do about any other extinct human. Further, over the past 150 years no other palaeospecies has provided such a constant source of discussion and fierce debate amongst palaeoanthropologists and archaeologists. Today at least three different specialist fields are significantly involved in research: archaeology, palaeoanthropology and palaeogenetics. In the first instance al! three are reliant for their investigations upon direct evidence from these Ice Age people. However, the size of samples available to scientists of the three disciplines is subject to extreme variation. Notwithstanding, all three disciplines are intrinsically linked, albeit that each draws upon quite different methods and is influenced by different research cultures and world views. For this rea· son, even after some 150 years of research there is still no generally accepted theory concerning the rise of the Neanderthal as a Pleistocene form of Homo and its disappearance.
It is argued in this paper that not behavioural deficits but abrupt climate oscillations so called DansgaardOeschger oscillations played an important role in Neanderthal population history and that north of the Pyrenees, the Alps and the Carpathian Mountains populations of this period were subjected to continual climate change. These changes produced a pronounced yo-yo effect with dramatic consequences for human populations. It is assume that within the space of just a few generations the northerly settlement boundary was regularly pushed back as far as the Mediterranean region.
On six occasions during the second half of the last ice age there ensued exceptional climate anomalies now known as Heinrich events which depart from the standard pattern of Dansgaard-Oeschger oscillations. The most important characteristic of Heinrich events is extreme aridity in the south. In the Mediterranean region semi-deserts developed a phenomenon which is not only attested on the Iberian Peninsula but also in the Eastern Mediterranean. In fact, Heinrich event 4 shows a positive temporal correlation with the transition from Middle Palaeolithic to the Aurignacian at around 40,000 years ago. On the basis of what is currently known about the Heinrich events, there is good reason to assume that these severe climate anomalies could have breached the standard cold phase migration patterns of hunter-gatherer populations. The extreme aridity to have prevailed in the retreat areas of the Mediterranean at these times could have resulted in the total collapse of human populations.
Thus, this model of population dynamics unites the apparently incompatible core messages from archaeology, palaeoanthropology and palaeogenetics. Against the background of this demographic scenario the likelihood is rather slight that Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans would have encountered one another in Europe. Further substantiation for this overall hypothesis is provided by the chronological position of Heinrich event 3 at around 30,000 years ago. Seeing as the transition from Aurignacian to Gravettian also occurred at this time, this Heinrich event might also have triggered similar demographic processes resulting again in cultural change. Indeed, should this 'repeated replacement model' be corroborated by further data in the future, then it might be concluded that the extinction of the Neanderthals was an altogether unspectacular incident -just another of numerous 'natural' exchange processes of European Ice Age populations.
