Setting the record straight: toward a systematic chronological understanding of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic boundary in Eurasia. Preface.

The Middle to Upper Paleolithic boundary marks an important threshold in human cultural and biological evolutionwith the establishment of Anatomically Modern Humans and the termination of Neandertal settlement in Eurasia between 40–30 ka C BP. The demographic and cultural processes underlying this ‘‘transition’’ throughout Eurasia are among the most intensively debated issues in Paleolithic Archaeology and Human Paleontology. Of key importance to this debate are issues related to the last surviving Neandertals and the end of the Middle Paleolithic (e.g., Adler et al., 2008) on the one hand, and the first appearance of modern humans (e.g., Jacobi and Higham, 2008), ‘‘modern human behavior’’ (e.g., Pettitt, 2008), and Upper Paleolithic industries (e.g., Adler et al., 2008; Conard and Bolus, 2008; Hoffecker et al., 2008; Pinhasi et al., 2008) on