Neanderthals and modern humans (2011)

A public day of lectures and discussion on the Palaeolithic of Europe, the arrival of the first modern humans and the extinction of Neanderthals. 16 April 2011, Martin Wood Lecture Theatre, Oxford.

A team from the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit has led a 4 year programme seeking to improve the dating of the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition of Europe. Broadly speaking, this is the period over which anatomically modern humans replaced Neanderthals. Significant debate has raged over the precise nature of this transition. Amongst the key questions are:

* What route or routes did the first modern humans take into Europe?
* To what extent did modern people and Neanderthals overlap in time?
* What genetic and cultural exchange took place?
* What is the relationship between climatic and environmental changes in Europe and the dispersal of the earliest modern people?
* Why did Neanderthals become extinct? and can we see any geographical or temporal patterns in the extinction process?

Listen to the audio...
Via  Archaeology in Europe News Blog