Rapid dental development in a Middle Paleolithic Belgian Neanderthal

Revised age of late Neanderthal occupation and the end of the Middle Paleolithic in the northern Caucasus.

Advances in direct radiocarbon dating of Neanderthal and anatomically modern human (AMH) fossils and the development of archaeostratigraphic chronologies now allow refined regional models for Neanderthal-AMH coexistence. In addition, they allow us to explore the issue of late Neanderthal survival in regions of Western Eurasia located within early routes of AMH expansion such as the Caucasus. He...

Direct dating of Neanderthal remains from the site of Vindija Cave and implications for the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition.

Previous dating of the Vi-207 and Vi-208 Neanderthal remains from Vindija Cave (Croatia) led to the suggestion that Neanderthals survived there as recently as 28,000-29,000 B.P. Subsequent dating yielded older dates, interpreted as ages of at least ∼32,500 B.P. We have redated these same specimens using an approach based on the extraction of the amino acid hydroxyproline, using preparative high...

Are Upper Paleolithic blade cores more productive than Middle Paleolithic discoidal cores? A replication experiment.

It is widely believed that the change from discoidal flake production to prismatic blade-making during the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition in Europe led to enhanced technological efficiency. Specifically, blade-making is thought to promote higher rates of blank production, more efficient and complete reduction of the parent core, and a large increase in the total length of cutting edge per ...

Brief communication: dental development and enamel thickness in the Lakonis Neanderthal molar.

Developmental and structural affinities between modern human and Neanderthal dental remains continue to be a subject of debate as well as their utility for informing assessments of life history and taxonomy. Excavation of the Middle Paleolithic cave site Lakonis in southern Greece has yielded a lower third molar (LKH 1). Here, we detail the crown development and enamel thickness of the distal c...

The Chaine Operatoire Approach in Middle Paleolithic Archaeology