columbu a , chiarini v , spötl c 1 2, benazzi s1 ...and the reasons behind their extinction1–6....

Ph.O.Lacarbonara

Alongcontinuouspalaeoclimate-palaeoenvironmentalrecordofthelastglacialperiodfromsouthernItalyandimplicationsforthecoexistenceofAnatomicallyModernHumansandNeanderthals

ColumbuA1,ChiariniV1,SpötlC2,BenazziS1,HellstromJ3,ChengH4,DeWaeleJ1.

1BolognaUniversity(Italy)2InnsbruckUniversity(Austria)

3MelbourneUniversity(Australia)2Xi’anJiaotongUniversity(China)

©Authors.Allrightsreserved

Apulia:alandofcavesandancienthumans

Altamuraman,picturefromwww.uomodialtamura.it2

Columbuetal,InPrep


LETTERdoi:10.1038/nature10617

Early dispersal of modern humans in Europe andimplications for Neanderthal behaviourStefano Benazzi1, Katerina Douka2, Cinzia Fornai1, Catherine C. Bauer3, Ottmar Kullmer4, Jirı Svoboda5,6, Ildiko Pap7,Francesco Mallegni8, Priscilla Bayle9, Michael Coquerelle10, Silvana Condemi11, Annamaria Ronchitelli12, Katerina Harvati3,13

& Gerhard W. Weber1

The appearance of anatomicallymodern humans in Europe and thenature of the transition from the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic arematters of intense debate. Most researchers accept that before thearrival of anatomically modern humans, Neanderthals had adoptedseveral ‘transitional’ technocomplexes. Two of these, the Uluzzianof southern Europe and the Chatelperronian of western Europe, arekey to current interpretations regarding the timing of arrival ofanatomically modern humans in the region and their potentialinteraction with Neanderthal populations. They are also central tocurrent debates regarding the cognitive abilities of Neanderthalsand the reasons behind their extinction1–6 . However, the actualfossil evidence associated with these assemblages is scant and frag-mentary7–10, and recent work has questioned the attribution of theChatelperronian to Neanderthals on the basis of taphonomic mix-ing and lithic analysis11,12 . Here we reanalyse the deciduous molarsfrom the Grotta del Cavallo (southern Italy), associated with theUluzzian and originally classified as Neanderthal13,14. Using twoindependent morphometric methods based on microtomographicdata, we show that the Cavallo specimens can be attributed to ana-tomically modern humans. The secure context of the teeth providescrucial evidence that the makers of the Uluzzian technocomplex

were therefore not Neanderthals. In addition, new chronometricdata for the Uluzzian layers of Grotta del Cavallo obtained fromassociated shell beads and included within a Bayesian age modelshow that the teeth must date to 45,000–43,000 calendar yearsbefore present. The Cavallo human remains are therefore the oldestknownEuropeananatomicallymodernhumans, confirming a rapiddispersal of modern humans across the continent before theAurignacian and the disappearance of Neanderthals.Two deciduous molars (Cavallo-B and Cavallo-C) were excavated

in 1964 from the site of Grotta del Cavallo (Apulia, southern Italy;Supplementary Information). Cavallo is important as the type site ofthe Uluzzian technocomplex15, one of the three main transitionalindustries alongside the Chatelperronian and Szeletian, in Franco-Cantabria and Central Europe, respectively. These are strongly sus-pected of being produced by Neanderthals, although the actual fossilevidence in association is scant16.Cavallo-B is a deciduous left upper first molar (dM1), found in layer

EIII (archaic Uluzzian). Cavallo-C is a deciduous left upper secondmolar (dM2) found 15–20 cm above Cavallo-B, in layer EII-I (evolvedUluzzian)13 (Supplementary Fig. 1 and Supplementary Table 1). Thespecimens (Fig. 1) were described in 1967 by Palma di Cesnola and

1Department of Anthropology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria. 2Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and theHistory of Art, University ofOxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK. 3Paleoanthropology, Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, Eberhard Karls Universitat Tubingen, Rumelnstrasse23, Tubingen 72070, Germany. 4Department of Paleoanthropology and Messel Research, Senckenberg Research Institute Frankfurt, Senckenberganlage 25, D-60325 Frankfurt, Germany. 5Institute ofArchaeology, Academy of Sciences of the CzechRepublic, Kralovopolska 147, 61200Brno, Czech Republic. 6Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Science,Masaryk University, Vinarska 5, 60300Brno,CzechRepublic. 7Department of Anthropology, HungarianNatural HistoryMuseum, Ludovika ter 2-6, 1083Budapest, Hungary. 8Department of Biology, University of Pisa, Via S.Maria 53, 56126Pisa, Italy.9UMR5199PACEA, Universite Bordeaux 1, avenuedes Facultes, 33405 Talence, France. 10Paleoanthropology group, Department of PaleobiologyMuseoNacional de CienciasNaturales (MNCM-CSIC), C/Jose Gutierrez Abascal 2, 28006Madrid, Spain. 11UMR6578CNRS/AixMarseille/EFS, Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Bioculturelle, Faculte deMedecine/SecteurNord, CS80011BdPierre Dramard 13344,Marseille Cedex 15, France. 12Department of Environmental Sciences ‘‘G. Sarfatti’’, U.R. Prehistoric Ecology, University of Siena, via T. Pendola 62, 53100 Siena, Italy. 13Senckenberg Center for HumanEvolution and Paleoecology, Eberhard Karls Universitat Tubingen, Rumelnstrasse 23, Tubingen 72070, Germany.

B

M

L

D

a b

Figure 1 | Occlusal view of the deciduous molars from the Uluzzian layers of Grotta del Cavallo (Apulia, southern Italy). a, Cavallo-B (deciduous left upperfirst molar; dM1). b, Cavallo-C (deciduous left upper second molar; dM2). B, buccal; D, distal; L, lingual; M, mesial. Scale bar, 1 cm.

2 4 N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 1 | V O L 4 7 9 | N A T U R E | 5 2 5

Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved©2011

TheoldestremaininEuropeofModernHuman(MH),datedat~45

ka,werefoundinApulia.

Neanderthalsinhabitedthisland

sinceatleast130ka,anddisappearedaround42ka.

Thetwospeciescohabitedforatleast~3000yearsinthesame

territory

Benazzietal.,2011Nature

3©Authors.Allrightsreserved

Continuousgrowthof last glacial speleothems in Italy, andall Europe, is scarce.Butlast glacial climate in Apulia was possibly milder than other areas, allowingspeleothemsdepositionduringthelastglacialaswellasolderglacials.PC + SA1 cover thewhole last glacial period. This presentation focuses on PC fromPozzoCucùCave(redarrow)

4

Isola-


PozzoCucùCave(PCsample)


TheareaofstudydenotestypicalMediterraneanclimate.Airmasses,procuringrainfallprecipitation,mostlytransportedbywesterlies.

MainmoisturesourceistheAtlantic.


7

Stableisotope(InnsbruckUni)

0.1-0.2mmspacing

Dating(Melbourne&Xi’anUni)

27U-Thagesproduced

PCstalagmite


8

Solidagemodel.PCwasdeposited

between~106and~27ka.


9

δ18OreproducesalmostallDOcycles,attimeswithinterestingfeatures


10

DuringDO23-19,stadials/interstadialsinPCresemblesAsianstadials/interstadialstoo


11

Sub-Docyclesalsodetected


12

PCδ18O(grayinthebackground)

vsMediterranean

archives


13

PCδ18Oisreflectinghemisphericclimatechanges.FromMIS5toMIS4,itisinterpretedasrainfallamountvariation.

Soilbioproductivity,expressedbyPCδ13C,changedaccordingly.


14

DuringMIS3PCδ18Oshowsagradualrainfallreduction.DO-likevariationshadnotconsequencesonδ13C.


15

Remarks#1

DuringMIS3thereisashiftfromAtlantic-dominatedrainfalltoMediterraneandominatedrainfall.Hence,intheareaofstudy,rainfallamountvariabilityat

stadial/interstadialscaleislesspronounced.

Withtheexceptionofanetcold/dryeventat~55ka,coincidingwithHeinrich5a,MIS3rainfallvariabilityisnotcapableinproducingimportantchangesinsoil

bioproductivity.

EventslikeHeinrich5and4arenotrecordedbyPC,asotherrecordsaroundtheMediterranean.


16

Remarks#2

Thelong-lastingavailabilityoffreshwaterandthelackofdrasticclimateshiftssuggestthatApuliaactedasanenvironmentalnicheduringMH-Neanderthals

turnover(MiddletoUpperPaleolithictransition(MUPT)).

Accordingly,climatedidnotplayakeyroleinthedisappearanceoftheNeanderthalsinthisarea,thustheNeanderthal-MHturnovermustbeapproachedfromaperspectivethattakesintoaccountclimateandenvironmentalconditions

favorableforbothspecies.

Inthisview,theadvancedhuntingtechnologyofMHgroupsoverNeanderthalssincetheirmigrationtoEuropeappearsnowasolidreasontoexplainthe

territorialsupremacyoftheformerthatinducedtheextinctionofthelatterafter~3000yearsofcoexistence.


17

Aglimpsetofuturestudies:extendingPCrecordwithSA1-stalagmite(collectedfromacave~40kmfromPC).

PC+SA1issupposedtobethelongestcontinuouslastglacialrecordinEurope.

Columbuetal,InPrep©Authors.Allrightsreserved

18

SA1duringterminationI.Bolling-AllerodandYoungerDryaswell

recordedbyδ18O.

Soilsreportanabruptdecreaseinbioproductivityonlyat~17ka

(topcurve).

Interestingstep-likeshapeofSA1δ18OprogressingtowardBA(middlecurve).NGRIPinthe

background(gray)

Columbuetal,InPrep©Authors.Allrightsreserved

C

19

Communication:

DuringthelastyearsIhavecollectedseveralsamplesfromApuliaandSardinia,mostofthempreliminarilydated(imagebelow).ThisdatasetallowstoexploretheMediterraneanclimatefromdifferentinterestingperspectives.Ihavegoodideasinmind,butscarceresourcesandnostableposition.Iamlookingfornewcollaborationsanda

possiblenewpositionforcontinuingthisresearch.Ifyouareinterestedincollaboratingwithme,pleasedropmeanemail!

Sardinia

Apulia


20

HopeyouareallgoodCheers,Andrea

[email protected]://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/andrea.columbu2/en


columbu a , chiarini v , spötl c 1 2, benazzi s1 ...and the reasons behind their extinction1–6....

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