FINISTERRA - Population Trajectories and Cultural Dynamics of Late Neanderthals in Far Western Eurasia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In recent years, knowledge of the processes involved in the disappearance of the Neanderthals and the successful expansion of our species across Eurasia has substantially increased. Still, the spatiotemporal variability of the presumed mechanisms behind Neanderthals’ demise makes evaluating the replacement at a continental scale very challenging. Iberiaa, due to its cul-de-sac position and the role of its southern regions as one of the last refugia for the Neanderthals, represents an ideal natural setting for testing models of cultural and demographic trajectories leading to the disappearance of those populations. This poster introduces FINISTERRA, a project that seeks to expand this framework by implementing an integrative, interdisciplinary, multi-scale approach to the archaeological and paleoenvironmental records of late Neanderthals in southwestern Iberia. Combining geoarchaeological, chronological, and paleoecological evidence, FINISTERRA will (1) provide a detailed characterization of late Neanderthal adaptive systems, presenting high-resolution data on the timeline of events leading to their disappearance; (2) investigate the presence of the so-called early warning signals of Neanderthals’ demise through the use of cutting-edge quantitative analyses; (3) explore alternative hypotheses of a gradual or sudden loss of Neanderthals’ resilience by considering the impacts of climate change and the spread of modern humans into western Eurasia.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39412.0