A surprising early replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans (AMH) in Southern Spa

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A surprising early replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans (AMH) in Southern Spain

http://www.madrimasd.org/notiweb/no...I8BZHZhyzcMcy2WDydH3R2y9oxf7nKjtVhiSi8MzFPM0k

A surprising early replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans (AMH) in Southern Spain
A study conducted in Cueva Bajondillo (Torremolinos, Málaga) by a team of researchers from Spain, Japan and the United Kingdom reveals that modern humans replaced the Neanderthals some 44,000 years ago.


This fact shows that the replacement of Neandertals by modern humans in southern Iberia is an early, not a late, phenomenon in the context of Western Europe.


Western Europe is a key zone to date the replacement of Neandertals by modern humans. The former are associated with Mousterian industries (nominated from the Neanderthal site of Le Moustier in France) and the latter with the Aurignacians (nominated from the also French site of Aurignac) who succeeded them. To date, radiocarbon dating available in Western Europe dated the conclusion of this replacement around 39,000 years, although in the south of the Iberian Peninsula the survival of Mousterian (and, therefore, Neanderthal) industries would be prolonged. up to 32,000 years, there is no evidence in the area of ​​the early Aurignacian that is documented in Europe.


The new dates of Cueva Bajondillo (Torremolinos, Málaga) limit the replacement of the Mousterian industries by the Aurignacians in a range between ~ 45-43,000 years, which raises questions about the late survival of Neanderthals in southern Iberia. New research will be needed to determine if these new dates effectively show an earlier replacement of Neandertals throughout the peninsular south or more complex scenarios of "mosaic" coexistence between the two groups over millennia.


In any case, the information provided shows that the implantation of modern humans in Cueva Bajondillo is unconnected with phenomena of extreme cold (the so-called Heinrich events), since it was later than the dates published the closest of these (39,500 years). Jimenez-Espejo (University of Granada, UGR), one of the co-authors of the article, comments that: "the Heinrich events represent the most intense and variable climatic conditions in Western Europe on a millennial scale although, in this coastal region of the Mediterranean, they do not seem to have been involved in the transition from Mousteriense to Aurignacian. "


The location of Bajondillo points to the coastal corridors as a preferred route in the dispersion of the first modern humans. In this sense, Chris Stringer (Museum of Natural History of the United Kingdom), another coauthor of the study, affirms that: "finding an Aurignacian so early in a cave so close to the sea reinforces the idea that the Mediterranean coast was a route for modern humans who penetrated into Europe, reinforcing the dates that evidence that more than 40,000 years ago Homo sapiens had quickly dispersed over much of Eurasia. "


Abundant in this relevance of the coastal areas, Arturo Morales-Muñiz (Autonomous University of Madrid, UAM), co-author of the study, suggests, finally, that Cueva Bajondillo's evidences revitalize the idea of ​​the Strait of Gibraltar as a potential route of dispersion of the modern humans that came out of Africa.
 
the earliest Aurignacian is dated 43.5 ka in Willendorf, along the Danube in Austria
soon after it spread to the Schwäbische Alp in southern Germany
ca 39.5 ka it spread east till the Kostenki area along the Don river

this early date in southern Spain is something completely new
I'd like to have it confirmed with other data and I wonder whether there was continuity till the later Aurignacian in that area

and a link with Africa, I don't see any, there is nothing resembling to anything of Aurignacian there
 

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