Replacement of Neanderthals by Modern Humans Series The Middle and Upper Paleolithic Archeology of the Levant and Beyond

Modern humans, or Homo sapiens, emerged in Africa more than 200,000 years ago and dispersed to different parts of the Eurasian continents, where they replaced and/or interacted with indigenous archaic hominins. Understanding this distinct event—unprecedented in the long human history of more than six million years—has been one of the most hotly debated subjects in the recent anthropological and archaeological literature. Almost every year (or every month or week), new research results are reported from different disciplines, including ancient genetic studies, paleoanthropology, and archaeology. A few of these new finds worth mentioning are the addition of Denisovans to the group of archaic hominins previously represented by Neanderthals, the confirmation of interbreeding of modern humans with these hominin groups, and the identification of “modern” behaviors among these archaic populations that had been thought to be signatures of anatomically modern humans (i.e., Homo sapiens).

These findings and other new data indicate that the replacement/assimilation processes should be considered more complicated than previously thought, thus rejecting a straightforward replacement model. In other words, current research in this area requires more refined perspectives that are grounded in interpretations of higher resolution data. Accordingly, we organized an international conference in 2014 in Hokkaido, Japan, to compile the results of the latest multidisciplinary approaches and investigate the issues surrounding the replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans.

The present volume is an outcome of one of the many sessions at that conference, augmented by off-site contributions—all related to the Middle and Upper Paleolithic periods, key periods of replacement/assimilation of modern humans with archaic hominins. It examines the archeological evidence from West Asia, where modern humans most likely encountered archaic humans (Neanderthals) for the first time and began the complicated processes of replacement/assimilation. The first part of this volume presents recent findings from the Levant, whereas the second part focuses on neighboring regions (i.e., the Caucasus, the Zagros, and South Asia). In conclusion, the 13 chapters in this volume highlight the distinct nature of cultural occurrences in the Levant during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic periods, displaying continuous development as well as a combination of lithic traditions that might have originated in different regions. This syncretism, which is an unusual occurrence in the regions discussed in this volume, reinforces the importance of the Levant as a region for interpreting the replacement/assimilation processes in West Asia.

 

(Written by NISHIAKI Yoshihiro, Professor, The University Museum / 2019)