Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Modeling Human Ecodynamics and Biocultural Interactions in the Late Pleistocene of Western Eurasia

Human Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Given the complex and multidimensional nature of human evolution, we need to develop theoretical and methodological frameworks to account for and model the dynamic feedbacks between co-operational biological and cultural evolutionary systems to better understand the processes that produced modern human behavior. Equally important is the generation of explicit theory-based models that can be tested against the empirical paleoanthropological record. We present a case study that examines evidence for culturally-driven behavioral change among Late Pleistocene hominins that altered the social niche occupied by hominins in western Eurasia, with consequences for subsequent biological and cultural evolution. We draw on a large sample of 167 Pleistocene assemblages across western Eurasia and employ mathematical and computational modeling to explore the feedbacks between cultural and biological inheritance. Shifts in land-use strategies changed the opportunities for social and biological interaction among Late Pleistocene hominins in western Eurasia with a cascade of consequences for cultural and biological evolution, including the disappearance of Neanderthals from the fossil and archaeological records, and the acceleration of cultural evolution among ancestors of modern humans.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Notes

  1. The oft-repeated assertion that Neanderthal must have learned to make transitional industries from MMH also implies 1) that Neanderthals were fully capable of socially learning complex behaviors from other hominins, including manufacture and use of compound implement technologies; 2) Neanderthals spent sufficient time in physically close, regular, peaceful contact with MMH individuals to socially learn how to make and use these technologies (learning to make and use complex tools like this cannot done through observation from a distance alone); and 3) Neanderthals were able to subsequently transmit these technological behaviors socially to other Neanderthals or we would not find these industries distributed across multiple locales and long temporal spans.

References

  • Ahler, S. A. (1989). Mass analysis of flaking debris: studying the forest rather than the tree. In Henry, D. O., Odell, G. H. (eds.), Alternative approaches to lithic analysis. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association Number 1, pp. 85–118

  • Alvard, M. S. (2003). The Adaptive Nature of Culture. Evolutionary Anthropology 12: 136–149.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amick, D. (1996). Regional Patterns of Folsom Mobility and Land Use in the American Southwest. World Archaeology 27: 411–426.

    Google Scholar 

  • Andrefsky, W. (2001). Lithic Debitage: Context, Form, Meaning. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bailey, S. E. (2004). A Morphometric Analysis of Maxillary Molar Crowns of Middle-Late Pleistocene Hominins. Journal of Human Evolution 47: 183–198 doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2004.07.001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bamforth, D. B. (1986). Technological Efficiency and Tool Curation. American Antiquity 51: 38–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bankes, S. C., Lempert, R., and Popper, S. (2002). Making Computational Social Science Effective: Epistemology, Methodology, and Technology. Social Science Computer Review 20: 377–388.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barton, C. M. (1990). Beyond Style and Function: A View from the Middle Paleolithic. American Anthropologist 92: 57–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barton, C. M. (1991). Retouched tools: fact or fiction? Paradigms for interpreting chipped stone. In Clark, G. A. (ed.), Perspectives in Prehistory Paradigmatic Biases in Circum-Mediterranean Hunter-Gatherer Research. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philidelphia, pp. 143–163.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barton, C. M. (1997). Stone tools, style, and social identity: an evolutionary perspective on the archaeological record. In Barton, C. M., and Clark, G. A. (eds.), Rediscovering Darwin: Evolutionary Theory in Archaeological Explanation. American Anthropological Association, Washington DC, pp. 141–156.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barton, C. M. (1998). Looking back from the world’s end: paleolithic settlement and mobility at Gibraltar. In Sanchidrián Torti, J. L., and Simón Vallejo, M. D. (eds.), Las culturas del Pleistoceno superior en Andalucía. Patronato de la Cueva de Nerja, Nerja, pp. 13–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barton, C. M. (2008). General fitness, transmission, and human behavioral systems. In O’Brien, M. J. (ed.), Cultural Transmission. American Archaeology Press, Washingtion DC, pp. 112–119.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barton, C. M., and Clark, G. A. (1993). Cultural and natural formation processes in late quaternary cave and rockshelter sites of Western Europe and the Near East. In Goldberg, P., Nash, D. T., and Petraglia, M. D. (eds.), Formation Processes in Archaeological Context. Prehistory Press, Madison, pp. 33–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barton CM, Riel-Salvatore J (2011). Agents of Change: Modeling Biocultural Evolution in Upper Pleistocene Western Eurasia. Advances in Complex Systems. doi:10.1142/S0219525911003359

  • Bar-Yosef, O., and Kuhn, S. L. (1999). The Big Deal About Blades: Laminar Technologies and Human Evolution. American Anthropologist 101: 322–338.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bettinger, R. L. (1991). Hunter-Gatherers: Archaeological and Evolutionary Theory. Plenum Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Binford, L. R. (1979). Organization and Formation Processes: Looking at Curated Technologies. Journal of Anthropological Research 35: 255–273.

    Google Scholar 

  • Binford, L. R. (1980). Willow Smoke and Dogs’ Tails: Hunter-Gatherer Settlement Systems and Archaeological Site Formation. American Antiquity 45: 4–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Binford, L. R. (2001). Constructing Frames of Reference: An Analytical Method for Archaeological Theory Building Using Hunter-Gatherer and Environmental Data Sets, 1st ed. University of California Press, Berkeley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bleed, P. (1986). The Optimal Design of Hunting Weapons: Maintainability or Reliability. American Antiquity 51: 737–747.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bleed, P. (2001). Trees or Chains, Links or Branches: Conceptual Alternative for Consideration of Stone Tool Production and Other Sequential Activities. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 8: 101–127.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bolus, M., and Conard, N. J. (2001). The Late Middle Paleolithic and Earliest Upper Paleolithic in Central Europe and Their Relevance for the Out of Africa Hypothesis. Quaternary International 75: 29–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, R., and Richerson, P. J. (1985). Culture and the Evolutionary Process. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, R., and Richerson, P. J. (2005). The Origin and Evolution of Cultures. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brantingham, P. J. (2003). A Neutral Model of Stone Raw Material Procurement. American Antiquity 68: 487–509.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brantingham, P. J. (2006). Measuring Forager Mobility. Current Anthropology 47: 435–459.

    Google Scholar 

  • Christiansen, M. H., and Kirby, S. (2003). Language Evolution: Consensus and Controversies. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 7: 300–307 doi:10.1016/S1364-6613(03)00136-0.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, A. E. (2008). Changes in Occupation Intensity During the Lower and Middle Paleolithic at Tabun Cave. Master’s Paper, University of Arizona, Israel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coinman, N. R. (2000). The Archaeology of the Wadi al-Hasa, West-Central Jordan, Vol. 2: Excavations at Middle, Upper, and Epipaleolithic Sites in the Hasa. Arizona State University Anthropological Research Papers, Tempe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Colcutt, S. N. (1979). The Analysis of Quaternary Cave Sediments. World Archaeology 10: 290–301.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conard, N. J., and Bolus, M. (2003). Radiocarbon Dating the Appearance of Modern Humans and Timing of Cultural Innovations in Europe: new Results and New Challenges. Journal of Human Evolution 44: 331–371 doi:10.1016/S0047-2484(02)00202-6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Currat, M., and Excoffier, L. (2004). Modern Humans Did Not Admix with Neanderthals During Their Range Expansion into Europe. PLoS Biology 2: e421 doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0020421.

    Google Scholar 

  • d’Errico, F., Henshilwood, C., Lawson, G., et al. (2003a). Archaeological Evidence for the Emergence of Language, Symbolism, and Music–An Alternative Multidisciplinary Perspective. Journal of World Prehistory 17: 1–70 doi:10.1023/A:1023980201043.

    Google Scholar 

  • d’Errico, F., Julien, M., Liolios, D., et al. (2003b). Many awls in our argument. Bone tool manufacture and use in the Châtelperronian and Aurignacian levels of the Grotte du Renne at Arcy-sur-Cure. In Zilhão, J., and d’Errico, F. (eds.), The Chronology of the Aurignacian and of the Transitional Technocomplexes: Dating, Stratigraphies, Cultural Implications. Instituto Portugués de Arqueología, Lisbon, pp. 247–270.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, R., and Underdown, S. (2006). The Neanderthals: A Social Synthesis. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 16: 145–164 doi:10.1017/S0959774306000096.

    Google Scholar 

  • Demuth, J. P., and Wade, M. J. (2007). Population Differentiation in the Beetle Tribollium Castaneum. I. Genetic Architecture. Evolution 61: 494–509.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dibble, H. L. (1995). Middle Paleolithic Scraper Reduction: Background, Clarification, and Review of the Evidence to Date. Journal of archaeological method and theory 2: 299–368.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dibble, H. L., Chase, P. G., McPherron, S. P., and Tuffreau, A. (1997). Testing the Reality of a “Living Floor” with Archaeological Data. American Antiquity 62: 629–651.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duarte, C., Mauricio, J., Pettitt, P. B., et al. (1999). The Early Upper Paleolithic Human Skeleton from the Abrigo do Lagar Velho (Portugal) and Modern Human Emergence in Iberia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 96: 7604–7609.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eder, J. F. (1984). The Impact of Subsistence Change on Mobility and Settlement Pattern in a Tropical Forest Foraging Economy: Some Implications for Archeology. American Anthropologist 86: 837–853.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eswaran, V., Harpending, H., and Rogers, A. R. (2005). Genomics Refutes an Exclusively African Origin of Humans. Journal of Human Evolution 49: 1–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farrand, W. R. (2001). Archaeological sediments in caves and rockshelters. In Stein, J. K., and Farrand, W. R. (eds.), Sediments in Archaelogical Context. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, pp. 29–66.

    Google Scholar 

  • Féblot-Augustins, J. (1993). Mobility Strategies in the Late Middle Paleolithic of Central Europe and Western Europe: Elements of Stability and Variability. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 12: 211–265.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finlayson, C., and Carrión, J. S. (2007). Rapid Ecological Turnover and its Impact on Neanderthal and Other Human Populations. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 22: 213–222.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finlayson, C., Giles Pacheco, F., Rodriguez-Vidal, J., et al. (2006). Late Survival of Neanderthals at the Southernmost Extreme of Europe. Nature 443: 850–853.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzpatrick, B. M. (2004). Rates of Evolution of Hybrid Inviability in Birds and Mammals. Evolution 58: 1865–1870.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foley, R. (1985). Optimality Theory in Anthropology. Man 20: 222–242.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frison, G. C. (1968). A Functional Analysis of Certain Chipped Stone Tools. American Antiquity 33: 149–155.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garrigan, D., and Kingan, S. B. (2007). Archaic Human Admixture: A View from the Genome. Current Anthropology 48: 895–902.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glantz, M., Athreya, S., and Ritzman, T. (2009). Is Central Asia the Eastern Outpost of the Neandertal Range? A Reassessment of the Teshik-Tash Child. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 138: 45–61 doi:10.1002/ajpa.20897.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gould, R. A. K., Koster, D. A., and Sontz, A. H. L. (1971). The Lithic Assemblage of the Western Desert Aborigines of Australia. American Antiquity 36: 149–168.

    Google Scholar 

  • Green, R. E., Krause, J., Ptak, S. E., et al. (2006). Analysis of One Million Base Pairs of Neanderthal DNA. Nature 444: 330–336.

    Google Scholar 

  • Green, R. E., Krause, J., Briggs, A. W., et al. (2010). A Draft Sequence of the Neandertal Genome. Science 328: 710–722 doi:10.1126/science.1188021.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grove, M. (2009). Hunter-Gatherer Movement Patterns: Causes and Constraints. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 28: 222–233 doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2009.01.003.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grove, M. (2010). Logistical Mobility Reduces Subsistence Risk in Hunting Economies. Journal of Archaeological Science 37: 1913–1921 doi:10.1016/j.jas.2010.02.017.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammer, M. F., Woerner, A. E., Mendez, F. L., et al. (2011). Genetic Evidence for Archaic Admixture in Africa. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108: 15123–15128 doi:10.1073/pnas.1109300108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvati, K. (2003). The Neanderthal Taxonomic Position: Models of Intra- and Inter-Specific Craniofacial Variation. Journal of Human Evolution 44: 107–132 doi:10.1016/S0047-2484(02)00208-7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvati K (2007) Neanderthals and Their Contemporaries. Handbook of Paleoanthropology. pp. 1717–1748

  • Hawks J (2006) Selection Selection on Mitochondrial DNA and the Neanderthal Problem. In: Harvati K, Harrison T (eds) Neanderthals Revisited: New Approaches and Perspectives. pp. 221–238

  • Hawks, J., and Cochran, G. (2006). Dynamics of Adaptive Introgression from Archaic to Modern Humans. PaleoAnthropology 2006: 101–115.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henrich, J. (2004). Demography and Cultural Evolution: How Adaptive Cultural Processes can Produce Maladaptive Losses: The Tasmanian Case. American Antiquity 69: 197–214.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henrich, J., and McElreath, R. (2003). The Evolution of Cultural Evolution. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews 12: 123–135 doi:10.1002/evan.10110.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill, K., Barton, C. M., and Hurtado, A. M. (2009). The Emergence of Human Uniqueness: Characters Underlying Behavioral Modernity. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews 18: 187–200.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hiscock, P. (2007). Looking the Other way: A Materialist/Technological Approach to Classifying Tools and Implements, Cores and Retouched Flakes. In McPherron, S. P. (ed.), Tools Versus Cores. Alternative Approaches to Stone Tool Analysis. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle, pp. 198–222.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holdaway, S., and Douglass, M. (2011). A Twenty-First Century Archaeology of Stone Artifacts. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory doi:10.1007/s10816-011-9103-6.

  • Holland, J. D. (1992). Genetic Algorithms. Scientific American 267: 44–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holliday, T. (2006). Neanderthals and Modern Humans: An Example of a Mammalian Syngameon? New Approaches and Perspectives, Neanderthals Revisited, pp. 281–297.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hublin, J.-J. (2009). The Origin of Neandertals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106: 16022–16027 doi:10.1073/pnas.0904119106.

    Google Scholar 

  • Janssen, M. A., Sept, J. M., Griffith, C. S. (2007). Hominids Foraging in a Complex Landscape: Could Homo ergaster and Australopithecus boisei Meet Their Calories Requirements? In Takahashi, S., Salach, D., Rouchier, J. (eds.), Advancing Social Simulation: The First World Congress. Springer Japan, pp. 307–318

  • Kelly, R. L. (1983). Hunter-Gatherer Mobility Strategies. Journal Anthropology Research 39: 277–306.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelly, R. L. (1992). Mobility/Sedentism: Concepts, Archaeological Measures, and Effects. Annual Review of Anthropology 21: 43–66 doi:10.1146/annurev.an.21.100192.000355.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelly, R. L. (1995). The Foraging Spectrum: Diversity in Hunter-Gatherer Lifeways. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim, J. (2003). Land-Use Conflict and the Rate of the Transition to Agricultural Economy: A Comparative Study of Southern Scandinavia and Central-Western Korea. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 10: 277–321 doi:10.1023/A:1026087723164.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein, R. G. (2003). PALEOANTHROPOLOGY: Whither the Neanderthals? Science 299: 1525–1527.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kline, M. A., and Boyd, R. (2010). Population Size Predicts Technological Complexity in Oceania. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 277: 2559–2564 doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.0452.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krau, J., Lalueza-Fox, C., Orlando, L., et al. (2007). The Derived FOXP2 Variant of Modern Humans was Shared with Neandertals. Current Biology 17: 1908–1912.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, S. L. (1989). Hunter-getherer foraging organization and strategies of artifact replacement and discard. In Amick, D. S., and Mauldin, R. P. (eds.), Experiments in Lithic Technology. BAR, Oxford, pp. 33–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, S. L. (1991). Unpacking Reduction: Lithic raw-Material Economy in the Mousterian of West-Central Italy. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 10: 76–106.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, S. L. (1992). On Planning and Curated Technologies in the Middle Paleolithic. Journal of Anthropological Research 48: 185–214.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn SL (2004). Middle Paleolithic Assemblage Formation at Riparo Mochi. In: Johnson AL (ed) Processual Archaeology: Exploring Analytical Strategies, Frames of Reference and Culture Process. Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport, CT, pp 31–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laland, K. N., and Brown, G. R. (2006). Niche Construction, Human Behavior, and the Adaptive-lag Hypothesis. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews 15: 95–104 doi:10.1002/evan.20093.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laland, K. N., Odling-Smee, F. J., and Myles, S. (2010). How Culture Shaped the Human Genome: Bringing Genetics and the Human Sciences Together. Nature Reviews Genetics 11: 137–148 doi:10.1038/nrg2734.

    Google Scholar 

  • Langley, M. C., Clarkson, C., and Ulm, S. (2008). Behavioural Complexity in Eurasian Neanderthal Populations: A Chronological Examination of the Archaeological Evidence. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 18: 289–307 doi:10.1017/S0959774308000371.

    Google Scholar 

  • Magne, M. P. (1989). Lithic reduction stages and assemblage formation processes. In Amick, D. S., and Mauldin, R. P. (eds.), Experiments in Lithic Technology. BAR, Oxford, pp. 15–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Magne, M. P., and Pokotylo, D. (1981). A Pilot Study in Bifacial Lithic Reduction Sequences. Lithic Technology 10: 34–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mauldin, R. P., and Amick, D. S. (1989). Investigating patterning in debitage from experimental bifacial core reduction. In Amick, D. S., and Mauldin, R. P. (eds.), Experiments in Lithic Technology. BAR, Oxford., pp. 67–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meese, D. A., Gow, A. J., Alley, R. B., et al. (1997). The Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 Depth-age Scale: Methods and Results. Journal of Geophysical Research 102: 26411–26423.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, M. (1998). An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms, 1st ed. MIT Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Myers, A. (1989). Reliable and maintainable technological strategies in the mesolithic of mainland Britain. In Torrence, R. (ed.), Time Energy and Stone Tools. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 78–91.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, M. C. (1991). The Study of Technological Organization. Archaeological Method and Theory 3: 57–100.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newcomer, M. H. (1971). Some Quantitative Experiments in Handaxe Manufacture. World Archaeology 3: 85–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Noonan, J. P., Coop, G., Kudaravalli, S., et al. (2006). Sequencing and Analysis of Neanderthal Genomic DNA. Science 314: 1113–1118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Popescu, G., Riel-Salvatore, J., and Barton, C. M. (2007). Biogeographie umană şi organizare tehnologică în Pleistocenul Superior în regiunea Carpaţilor Meridionali. Materiale şi Cercetări Arheologice Serie Noua III: 19–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Potts, R. (1994). Variables Versus Models of Early Pleistocene Hominid Land-use. Journal of Human Evolution 27: 7–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Powell, A., Shennan, S., and Thomas, M. G. (2009). Late Pleistocene Demography and the Appearance of Modern Human Behavior. Science 324: 1298–1301 doi:10.1126/science.1170165.

    Google Scholar 

  • Premo, L. S., and Hublin, J.-J. (2009). Culture, Population Structure, and low Genetic Diversity in Pleistocene Hominins. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106: 33–37 doi:10.1073/pnas.0809194105.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richerson, P. J., and Boyd, R. (2005). Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richerson, P. J., Boyd, R., and Henrich, J. (2010). Colloquium Paper: Gene-Culture Coevolution in the Age of Genomics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107: 8985–8992 doi:10.1073/pnas.0914631107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riel-Salvatore, J. (2007). The Uluzzian and the Middle-Upper Paleolithic Transition in Southern Italy. Arizona State University, PhD Dissertation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riel-Salvatore, J. (2009). What is a “transitional” industry? The Uluzzian of southern Italy as a case study. In Camps, M., and Chauhan, P. (eds.), Sourcebook of Paleolithic Transitions: Methods, Theories, and Interpretations. Springer, New York, pp. 377–396.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riel-Salvatore, J. (2010). A Niche Construction Perspective on the Middle–Upper Paleolithic Transition in Italy. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 17: 323–355 doi:10.1007/s10816-010-9093-9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riel-Salvatore, J., and Barton, C. M. (2004). Late Pleistocene Technology, Economic Behavior, and Land-use Dynamics in Southern Italy. American Antiquity 69: 273–290.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riel-Salvatore, J., Barton, C. M. (2007). New Quantitative Perspectives on the Middle-Upper Paleolithic Transition: The View from the Northern Mediterranean. Early Upper Paleolithic “Transitional” Industries: New Questions, New Methods

  • Riel-Salvatore, J., and Clark, G. A. (2007). New Approaches to the Study of Early Upper Paleolithic “Transitional” Industries in Western Eurasia. Transitions Great and Small. Archaeopress, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riel-Salvatore, J., Popescu, G., and Barton, C. M. (2008). Standing at the Gates of Europe: Human Behavior and Biogeography in the Southern Carpathians During the Late Pleistocene. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 27: 399–417.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rolland, N., and Dibble, H. L. (1990). A new Synthesis of Middle Paleolithic Variability. American Antiquity 55: 480–499.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandgathe, D. M. (2006). Examining the Levallois Reduction Strategy from a Design Theory Point of View. Archaeopress, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Serangeli, J., and Bolus, M. (2008). Out of Europe - The Dispersal of a Successful European Hominin Form. Quartär 55: 83–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shennan, S. (2001). Demography and Cultural Innovation: A Model and Its Implications for the Emergence of Modern Human Culture. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 11: 5–16 doi:10.1017/S0959774301000014.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shott, M. J. (1994). Size and Form in the Analysis of Flake Debris: Review and Recent Approaches. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 1: 69–110 doi:10.1007/BF02229424.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shott, M. J. (1996). An Exegesis of the Curation Concept. Journal of Anthropological Research 52: 259–280.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shott, M. J., and Weedman, K. J. (2007). Measuring Reduction in Stone Tools: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Gamo Hidescrapers from Ethiopia. Journal of Archaeological Science 34: 1016–1035 doi:10.1016/j.jas.2006.09.009.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soffer O (2009). Defining Modernity, Establishing Rubicons, Imagining the Other—and the Neanderthal Enigma. In: Camps M, Chauhan P (eds) Sourcebook of Paleolithic Transitions. Springer New York, New York, NY, pp 43–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stiner, M. C., and Kuhn, S. L. (2006). Changes in the “Connectedness” and Resilience of Paleolithic Societies in Mediterranean Ecosystems. Human Ecology 34: 693–712.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tattersall, I., and Schwartz, J. H. (1999). Hominids and Hybrids: The Place of Neanderthals in Human Evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 96: 7117–7119.

    Google Scholar 

  • Torrence, R. (1989). Retooling: Towards a Behavioral Theory of Stone Tools. In Torrence, R. (ed.), Time Energy and Stone Tools. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 57–66.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trinkaus, E. (2005). EARLY MODERN HUMANS. Annual Review of Anthropology 34: 207–230 doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.34.030905.154913.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trinkaus, E. (2007). European Early Modern Humans and the Fate of the Neandertals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104: 7367–7372.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trinkaus, E., Moldovan, O., Milota stefan, et al. (2003). An Early Modern Human from the Pestera cu Oase, Romania. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100: 11231–11236.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trinkaus, E., Maki, J., and Zilhão, J. (2007). Middle Paleolithic Human Remains from the Gruta da Oliveira (Torres Novas), Portugal. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 134: 263–273.

    Google Scholar 

  • van der Leeuw, S. E. (2004). Why Model? Cybernetics and Systems: An International Journal 35: 117 doi:10.1080/01969720490426803.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vanhaeren, M. (2005). The evolutionary significance of beadmaking and use. In d’Errico, F., and Blackwell, L. (eds.), From Tools to Symbols: From Early Hominids to Modern Humans. Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg, pp. 525–535.

    Google Scholar 

  • Villaverde, V., Aura Tortosa, J. E., and Barton, C. M. (1998). The Upper Paleolithic in Mediterranean Spain: A Review of Current Evidence. Journal of World Prehistory 12: 121–198.

    Google Scholar 

  • Voisin, J.-L. (2006). Speciation by Distance and Temporal Overlap: A new way of Understanding Neanderthal Evolution. In Harisson, T., and Harvati, K. (eds.), Neanderthals Revisited: New Approaches and Perspectives. Springer, New York, pp. 299–314.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitley, D. (1994). A Genetic Algorithm Tutorial. Statistics and Computing 4: 65–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilensky, U. (1999). NetLogo. Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling. Northwestern University

  • Willermet, C. M. (2001). Fuzzy Logic as a Classification Tool: A Case Study Using Levantine Archaic Hominids. Arizona State University, PhD dissertation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Willermet, C. M., and Clark, G. A. (1995). Paradigm Crisis in Modern Human Origins Research. Journal of Human Evolution 29: 487–490 doi:10.1006/jhev.1995.1071.

    Google Scholar 

  • Willermet, C. M., and Hill, J. B. (1997). Fuzzy Set Theory and Its Implications for Speciation Models. In Clark, G. A., and Willermet, C. M. (eds.), Conceptual Issues in Modern Human Origins Research. Aldine de gruyter, New York, pp. 77–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wobst, H. M. (1974). Boundary Conditions for Paleolithic Social Systems: A Simulation Approach. American Antiquity 39: 147–178.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolf, D. E., Takebayashi, N., and Rieseberg, L. H. (2001). Predicting the Risk of Extinction Through Hybridization. Conservation Biology 15: 1039–1053.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolpoff, M. H., Mannheim, B., Mann, A., et al. (2004). Why Not the Neandertals? World Archaeology 36: 527–546.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zilhão, J. (2007). The Emergence of Ornaments and Art: An Archaeological Perspective on the Origins of Behavioural “Modernity.”. Journal of Archaeological Research 15: 1–54 doi:10.1007/s\10814-006-9008-1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zilhão, J., and d’Errico, F. (2003). The Chronology of the Aurignacian and of the Transitional Technocomplexes: Dating, Stratigraphies, Cultural Implications. Instituto Português de Arqueologia, Lisbon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zilhão, J., Angelucci, D. E., Badal-García, E., et al. (2010). Symbolic use of Marine Shells and Mineral Pigments by Iberian Neandertals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107: 1023–1028 doi:10.1073/pnas.0914088107.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation (grant BCS-0526073), and a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship and Graduate Student Fellowship from the Committee for the International Exchange of Scholars. We want to thank Kim Hill, Bill Kimbel, and Geoff Clark for their comments on versions of this manuscript. We are, of course, fully responsible for all ideas and their expression herein.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to C. Michael Barton.

Additional information

Grant Information

This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation (grant BCS-0526073), a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship (Committee for the International Exchange of Scholars), and a Fulbright Graduate Student Fellowship (Committee for the International Exchange of Scholars.)

Electronic Supplementary Material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

ESM 1

(PDF 1.33 mb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Barton, C.M., Riel-Salvatore, J., Anderies, J.M. et al. Modeling Human Ecodynamics and Biocultural Interactions in the Late Pleistocene of Western Eurasia. Hum Ecol 39, 705–725 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-011-9433-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-011-9433-8

Keywords

Navigation