TY - JOUR

T1 - Archaeological evidence for two separate dispersals of Neanderthals into southern Siberia

AU - Kolobova, Kseniya A.

AU - Roberts, Richard G.

AU - Chabai, Victor P.

AU - Jacobs, Zenobia

AU - Krajcarz, Maciej T.

AU - Shalagina, Alena V.

AU - Krivoshapkin, Andrey I.

AU - Li, Bo

AU - Uthmeier, Thorsten

AU - Markin, Sergey V.

AU - Morley, Mike W.

AU - O’Gorman, Kieran

AU - Rudaya, Natalia A.

AU - Talamo, Sahra

AU - Viola, Bence

AU - Derevianko, Anatoly P.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2020 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2020/2/11

Y1 - 2020/2/11

N2 - Neanderthals were once widespread across Europe and western Asia. They also penetrated into the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia, but the geographical origin of these populations and the timing of their dispersal have remained elusive. Here we describe an archaeological assemblage from Chagyrskaya Cave, situated in the Altai foothills, where around 90,000 Middle Paleolithic artifacts and 74 Neanderthal remains have been recovered from deposits dating to between 59 and 49 thousand years ago (age range at 95.4% probability). Environmental reconstructions suggest that the Chagyrskaya hominins were adapted to the dry steppe and hunted bison. Their distinctive toolkit closely resembles Micoquian assemblages from central and eastern Europe, including the northern Caucasus, more than 3,000 kilometers to the west of Chagyrskaya Cave. At other Altai sites, evidence of earlier Neanderthal populations lacking associated Micoquian-like artifacts implies two or more Neanderthal incursions into this region. We identify eastern Europe as the most probable ancestral source region for the Chagyrskaya toolmakers, supported by DNA results linking the Neanderthal remains with populations in northern Croatia and the northern Caucasus, and providing a rare example of a long-distance, intercontinental population movement associated with a distinctive Paleolithic toolkit.

AB - Neanderthals were once widespread across Europe and western Asia. They also penetrated into the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia, but the geographical origin of these populations and the timing of their dispersal have remained elusive. Here we describe an archaeological assemblage from Chagyrskaya Cave, situated in the Altai foothills, where around 90,000 Middle Paleolithic artifacts and 74 Neanderthal remains have been recovered from deposits dating to between 59 and 49 thousand years ago (age range at 95.4% probability). Environmental reconstructions suggest that the Chagyrskaya hominins were adapted to the dry steppe and hunted bison. Their distinctive toolkit closely resembles Micoquian assemblages from central and eastern Europe, including the northern Caucasus, more than 3,000 kilometers to the west of Chagyrskaya Cave. At other Altai sites, evidence of earlier Neanderthal populations lacking associated Micoquian-like artifacts implies two or more Neanderthal incursions into this region. We identify eastern Europe as the most probable ancestral source region for the Chagyrskaya toolmakers, supported by DNA results linking the Neanderthal remains with populations in northern Croatia and the northern Caucasus, and providing a rare example of a long-distance, intercontinental population movement associated with a distinctive Paleolithic toolkit.

KW - Altai Mountains

KW - Chagyrskaya Cave

KW - Micoquian artifacts

KW - Middle Paleolithic

KW - Siberian Neanderthals

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85079330703&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1918047117

DO - 10.1073/pnas.1918047117

M3 - Article

C2 - 31988114

AN - SCOPUS:85079330703

VL - 117

SP - 2879

EP - 2885

JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

SN - 0027-8424

IS - 6

ER -