Damien Flas

The genetic history of Ice Age Europe

Modern humans arrived in Europe ~45,000 years ago, but little is known about their genetic composition before the start of farming ~8,500 years ago. We analyze genome-wide data from 51 Eurasians from ~45,000-7,000 years ago. Over this time, the proportion of Neanderthal DNA decreased from 3–6% to around 2%, consistent with natural selection against Neanderthal variants in modern humans. Whereas the earliest modern humans in Europe did not contribute substantially to present-day Europeans, all individuals between ~37,000 and ~14,000 years ago descended from a single founder population which forms part of the ancestry of present-day Europeans. A ~35,000 year old individual from northwest Europe represents an early branch of this founder population which was then displaced across a broad region, before reappearing in southwest Europe during the Ice Age ~19,000 years ago. During the major warming period after ~14,000 years ago, a new genetic component related to present-day Near Easterners appears in Europe. These results document how population turnover and migration have been recurring themes of European pre-history.

New data on the late Neandertals: direct dating of the Belgian Spy fossils.

In Eurasia, the period between 40,000 and 30,000 BP saw the replacement of Neandertals by anatomically modern humans (AMH) during and after the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition. The human fossil record for this period is very poorly defined with no overlap between Neandertals and AMH on the basis of direct dates. Four new (14)C dates were obtained on the two adult Neandertals from Spy (Belgium). The results show that Neandertals survived to at least approximately 36,000 BP in Belgium and that the Spy fossils may be associated to the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician, a transitional techno-complex defined in northwest Europe and recognized in the Spy collections. The new data suggest that hypotheses other than Neandertal acculturation by AMH may be considered in this part of Europe.

Pleistocene Mitochondrial Genomes Suggest a Single Major Dispersal of Non-Africans and a Late Glacial Population Turnover in Europe

How modern humans dispersed into Eurasia and Australasia, including the number of separate expansions and their timings, is highly debated [1, 2]. Two categories of models are proposed for the dispersal of non-Africans: (1) single dispersal, i.e., a single major diffusion of modern humans across Eurasia and Australasia [3-5]; and (2) multiple dispersal, i.e., additional earlier population expansions that may have contributed to the genetic diversity of some present-day humans outside of Africa [6-9]. Many variants of these models focus largely on Asia and Australasia, neglecting human dispersal into Europe, thus explaining only a subset of the entire colonization process outside of Africa [3-5, 8, 9]. The genetic diversity of the first modern humans who spread into Europe during the Late Pleistocene and the impact of subsequent climatic events on their demography are largely unknown. Here we analyze 55 complete human mitochondrial genomes (mtDNAs) of hunter-gatherers spanning ∼35,000 years of European prehistory. We unexpectedly find mtDNA lineage M in individuals prior to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). This lineage is absent in contemporary Europeans, although it is found at high frequency in modern Asians, Australasians, and Native Americans. Dating the most recent common ancestor of each of the modern non-African mtDNA clades reveals their single, late, and rapid dispersal less than 55,000 years ago. Demographic modeling not only indicates an LGM genetic bottleneck, but also provides surprising evidence of a major population turnover in Europe around 14,500 years ago during the Late Glacial, a period of climatic instability at the end of the Pleistocene.

The Lincombian-Ranisian-Jermanowician and the limit of the Aurignacian spreading on the northern European plain

In Eurasia, the period between 40,000 and 30,000 BP saw the replacement of Neandertals by anatomically modern humans (AMH) during and after the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition. The human fossil record for this period is very poorly defined with no overlap between Neandertals and AMH on the basis of direct dates. Four new (14)C dates were obtained on the two adult Neandertals from Spy (Belgium). The results show that Neandertals survived to at least approximately 36,000 BP in Belgium and that the Spy fossils may be associated to the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician, a transitional techno-complex defined in northwest Europe and recognized in the Spy collections. The new data suggest that hypotheses other than Neandertal acculturation by AMH may be considered in this part of Europe.

The Aurignacian in the Zagros region : new research at Yafteh Cave, Lorestan, Iran

The Yafteh cave in Iran has an intact Aurignacian sequence over 2m deep. First explored by Frank Hole and Kent Flannery in the 1960s, its strata and assemblage are here re-evaluated at first hand by a new international team. The authors show that the assemblage is genuine Aurignacian and dates back to about 35.5K uncal BP. They propose it as emerging locally and even as providing a culture of origin for modern humans in West Asia and Europe.

The Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in Northern Europe: the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician and the issue of acculturation of the last Neanderthals

Abstract During the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition, a technocomplex known as the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (LRJ), characterized by the presence of leaf-points made from blades, was found across the north-western European plain from Wales to Poland. Given the rarity and paucity of these assemblages, often mixed with other industries in collections from ancient excavations, many scholars have questioned the relevance of the definition of such a technocomplex. Nonetheless, based on technological and typological as well as chronological and geographic considerations, a precise study of available data shows that the LRJ cannot be considered as a facies of another technocomplex (Aurignacian, Szeletian or Bohunician). Identification of the LRJ also allows questions generally related to the ‘transitional industries’ to be tackled, such as their relation to either the last Neanderthals or the first European Homo sapiens sapiens and whether this complex is best explained as an independent development or as the result of acculturation. Given available data, the LRJ appears more likely to have been authored by Neanderthals, and is unlikely to be the result of acculturation processes.

New radiocarbon dates for the Zagros Aurignacian from Yafteh cave, Iran

Département de Préhistoire, Université de Liège, Place du XX-Août 7, B-4000 Liège, Belgium b Institut de Préhistoire et de Géologie du Quaternaire, PACEA-IPGQ/UMR 5199 du CNRS, Avenue des Facultés, Université Bordeaux 1, F-33405 Talence, France Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany Charge de recherches FNRS, Département de Préhistoire, Université de Liège, Place du XX-Août 7, B-4000, Liège, Belgium

Neandertal cannibalism and Neandertal bones used as tools in Northern Europe.

Almost 150 years after the first identification of Neandertal skeletal material, the cognitive and symbolic abilities of these populations remain a subject of intense debate. We present 99 new Neandertal remains from the Troisième caverne of Goyet (Belgium) dated to 40,500–45,500 calBP. The remains were identified through a multidisciplinary study that combines morphometrics, taphonomy, stable isotopes, radiocarbon dating and genetic analyses. The Goyet Neandertal bones show distinctive anthropogenic modifications, which provides clear evidence for butchery activities as well as four bones having been used for retouching stone tools. In addition to being the first site to have yielded multiple Neandertal bones used as retouchers, Goyet not only provides the first unambiguous evidence of Neandertal cannibalism in Northern Europe, but also highlights considerable diversity in mortuary behaviour among the region’s late Neandertal population in the period immediately preceding their disappearance.

The Maisierian : at the edge of the Gravettian

The development of the Gravettian complex is still largely unknown. In this context, the lithic assemblage from Maisieres-Canal, dated around 28,000 bp, is particularly interesting. We propose here a new study of this collection, based on technological, typological, and functional approaches, particularly focused on the tanged pieces and ‘Maisieres points’, some of which are likely projectile points. This new study leads us to discussion of the position of this assemblage in the context of the western European Early Gravettian. The Maisierian appears to be a specific industry, different from the typical Early Gravettian, and studying it thus permits new light to be shed on the complexity of the first phases of the Gravettian, a complex that is perhaps less consistent than it would seem.

Reassessment of the Lower Paleolithic (Acheulean) presence in the western Tien Shan

Kulbulak (Uzbekistan) is among the most important Paleolithic sites in Central Asia. Based on excavations from the 1960s to the 1980s, a stratigraphic sequence yielding 46 archeological horizons of the Lower, Middle and Upper Paleolithic has been described. The lowermost 22 layers were at that time defined as Acheulean, both in cultural and chronological aspects. Based on these previous works, Kulbulak has thus often been cited as one of the rarest occurrences of Lower Paleolithic and Acheulean in the region. However, this attribution was debatable. New excavations at Kulbulak in 2007–2010 provided new material and the first reliable dates that permitted us to tackle this issue. Moreover, a reappraisal of the lithic collections and documents from previous excavations was also conducted. These new data clearly indicate the absence of Acheulean or even Lower Paleolithic at Kulbulak. On the contrary, the lithic assemblages from this site only correspond to Middle and Upper Paleolithic periods. The lowermost layers are particularly interesting due to the presence of an early industry with blade and bladelet technology.