Late Neandertals of Russia's North

Ah, the irony! Right after a paper on Neandertal extinction c. 40,000 years ago, we now get a paper about Neandertal survival as late as 31,000 years ago in Russia's north. The two are not entirely incompatible, however, as Neandertals could very well have survived in the periphery of the sapiens range later than in its center.

To give an analogy with the more recent spread of agriculturalists, it is precisely in northern Eurasia, the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and Central/South Africa, i.e., areas distant from the primary centers of plant and animal domestication that relic pre-farming groups have survived.

It is highly unlikely that modern humans were that far north this early after their appearance across Eurasia, so we must probably discount the possibility (entertained by some) that Mousterian tools are not equal to Neandertals. It would be wonderful if actual Neandertal bones were ever recovered from that general area, as its latitude might be ideal for DNA preservation.

Science 13 May 2011: Vol. 332 no. 6031 pp. 841-845 DOI: 10.1126/science.1203866

Late Mousterian Persistence near the Arctic Circle

Ludovic Slimak et al.

Palaeolithic sites in Russian high latitudes have been considered as Upper Palaeolithic and thus representing an Arctic expansion of modern humans. Here we show that at Byzovaya, in the western foothills of the Polar Urals, the technological structure of the lithic assemblage makes it directly comparable with Mousterian Middle Palaeolithic industries that so far have been exclusively attributed to the Neandertal populations in Europe. Radiocarbon and optical-stimulated luminescence dates on bones and sand grains indicate that the site was occupied during a short period around 28,500 carbon-14 years before the present (about 31,000 to 34,000 calendar years ago), at the time when only Upper Palaeolithic cultures occupied lower latitudes of Eurasia. Byzovaya may thus represent a late northern refuge for Neandertals, about 1000 km north of earlier known Mousterian sites.

Link

The current state of Russian science is interesting to say the least. Two diametrically opposed papers on Neanderthals in the same day. Pour another vodka, comrade!

The average strength of these guys were about 30 percent stronger than our best decathalete. Not somebody you want to get into an argument with.

Strength is not necessarily decisive. If, for example, our ancestors were able to run faster, or throw spears farther or more accurately, we could have killed groups of Neanderthals before they could get close enough to use their strength.

Would you Like your daughter to marry a Neanderthal? I think it came down to that, why marry diner?

It doesn't stop the people who like screwing sheep and goats.

That might be the source of gene mixture: young Neanderthal girls captured and used as slaves.

I think that if you did not like the father the daughter would, except for a funny feeling, would not be up on the procreation list. Young Girls, as close as I can read history, were for the extension of the family, blood will out.

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