last glacial in europe

Ariane Burke - Julien RIEL-SALVATORE

Department of Anthropology, University of Montreal

This research axis focuses on human/environment interactions during the Last Glacial Maximum (Projects 1.1 and 1.2) and Marine Isotope Stage 3 (Projects 2.1 & 2.2).

Prior to the last glacial period anatomically modern humans and Neanderthals produced very similar archaeological signatures and probably led very similar lives. By 45,000 years ago, however, modern human populations had adopted an Upper Palaeolithic culture characterized by the development of spatially extensive social networks and were dispersing across Eurasia. Shortly thereafter, Neanderthal populations disappear from the archaeological record. Several interesting questions arise from these observations, the most important of which concerns the role played by climate change in the development of modern human culture, the dispersal of modern human populations and the extinction of the Neanderthals.

Axis 1 uses the archaeological record and purpose-built, high-resolution climate simulations (Task 2) and environmental reconstructions (Task 1) to create detailed spatial models of the geographic distribution of modern human and Neanderthal populations in Western Europe during the last glacial period. These models allow us to track the responses of Neanderthal and modern human populations to environmental change at a critical period in their biological and cultural evolution (MIS3 and the LGM). The predictive power of the spatial models we produce will be harnessed to design archaeological field surveys. The results of this research programme will be used in Task 4 to help fill significant gaps in our understanding of the fate of Neanderthals and the history of human dispersals in Europe, and will contribute to a better understanding of the range of reactions human societies display in the face of climate change.

PROJECT 1.1 “The impact of climate change and climate variability on human populations during the last Glacial”
A. BURKE
PROJECT 1.2 “Agent-based modeling of human-prey interactions during the last glacial maximum in the Iberian Peninsula: implications for livelihoods”.
Samuel SEURU (PhD student), direction A. BURKE and L. PEREZ

PROJECT 2.1. “Human dispersions in Europe during Marine Isotopic Stage 3 (MIS 3) and their climatic and environmental conditions”.
Simon PAQUIN (PhD student), direction A. BURKE

PROJECT 2.2 “Paleogeography and population dynamics of the last Neanderthals in Western Europe (Marine Isotopic Stage 3/60 000 to 27 000 years before the present)”.
Benjamin ALBOUY (PhD student), direction A. BURKE and J. RIEL-SALVATORE