Updating Neanderthals: Understanding Behavioural Complexity in the Late Middle Palaeolithic - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0128214287 ISBN 13: 9780128214282

Publisher: Academic Press, 2022

Synopsis

Updating Neanderthals: Understanding Behavioral Complexity in the Late Middle Paleolithic provides comprehensive knowledge on Neanderthals who lived throughout the European and Asian continents. The book synthesizes historical information about the study of Middle Paleolithic populations and presents current debates about their genetics, subsistence, technology, social and cognitive behaviors. It focuses on the last phase of Neanderthal settlements and presents the main patterns of modern humans across Europe. Written by international experts on the Middle Paleolithic who have conducted innovative studies in the last three decades, this book explores the implications of interactions between different human species, including Neanderthals, Denisovans and Sapiens.

In addition, the book discusses the diversity and variability of human adaptations and behaviors in the changing climate and environment of the Late Pleistocene, and the relationship between these behaviors, demography and cognitive capabilities.

• Offers a comprehensive update on the variability and diversity of Neanderthal behaviors during the Late Pleistocene
• Presents an interdisciplinary reconstruction of Neanderthals by assessing archaeology, paleontology, paleoecology, anthropology, genetics and cognition
• Reviews the reliability of archaeological data and the theoretical and methodological advances of the last 30 years
• Discusses the most debated Neanderthal themes, such as demography, diet, socio-economy and art

About this title

About the Authors

Francesca Romagnoli, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain. She is specialized in the study of Neanderthal socio-economy. Her research is aimed at understanding adaptations and diversity of cultural behaviors in European Neanderthals, with a special focus in coastal adaptations. She has published innovative research on Neanderthal shell technology, site formation processes, and the relationships between human mobility, technological costs, and stone tool resources.

Florent Rivals, PhD, ICREA is a Research Professor at the Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Tarragona, Spain. He is specialized in the study of Neanderthal paleoecology. His research focuses on the impact of climate-driven environmental changes on humans, and Neanderthals in particular. He has published significant papers aimed to reconstruct ancient environments, tracking shifts related to climatic changes, and understanding hominin behavioral strategies in different ecological settings.

Stefano Benazzi, PhD, is a Full Professor at the University of Bologna, Department of Cultural Heritage, in Bologna, Italy. He is specialized in the study of Neanderthal skeletal morphology. His research is aimed at understanding the time and mode of the biological and cultural shifts that led to the demise of the autochthonous Neanderthals and their replacement by modern humans. He has published significant papers aimed to assess the taxonomical affiliation of isolated human teeth, to evaluate Neanderthal and modern human morphological variability, and to track the earliest arrival of modern humans in Europe.

From the Back Cover

Updating Neanderthals: Understanding Behavioural Complexity in the Late Middle Palaeolithic provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive knowledge of Neanderthals living throughout the European and Asian continents. Focusing on the last phase of Neanderthal settlements and behaviours in Europe, the Levant and across Asian regions, the book synthesises historical information about the study of Middle Palaeolithic populations and presents the current debates about their biology, subsistence, technology, and social and cognitive behaviours.

Written by international experts on the Middle Palaeolithic, the book explores the diversity and variability of human adaptations and behaviours in the changing climate and environment of the Late Pleistocene, and the relationships between these behaviours, demography, and cognitive capabilities. The book also discusses theoretical issues and shows how novel methods have improved our knowledge of human evolution. It also explores the new findings about the Denisovans and the arrival of Homo sapiens. The complete multidisciplinary approach includes archaeology, palaeoecology, genetics, and palaeoanthropology, transcending a ‘case study approach’ to present Neanderthals in the most complete way.

Updating Neanderthals: Understanding Behavioural Complexity in the Late Middle Palaeolithic is a vital reference for researchers, students, and advanced amateurs in prehistory, archaeology, human evolution studies, evolutionary psychology, palaeoecology, and cultural evolution.

Edition details

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0128214287
• ISBN 13: 9780128214282
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 382
• Editor: Romagnoli Francesca, Rivals Florent, Benazzi Stefano