Why are we, as Homo sapiens, currently the only human species in the world? How did we interact in our deep past with other population groups, such as Neanderthals? How and why did our behaviour, including our strategies for survival, vary? These questions remain poorly understood, even though they are crucial to understand the biological and behavioural evolution of our species, as well as the disappearance of all other types of humans. Neanderthals disappeared around 40,000 years ago, and the late Neanderthal time period provides the richest body of archaeological evidence to study the dynamics of past population interactions.
Recent studies of late Neanderthal DNA provided direct evidence for Neanderthal-Homo sapiens interbreeding, an achievement awarded with a Nobel Prize in 2022. However, questions on the chronological and geographic extent of Neanderthal-Homo sapiens coexistence in Europe, their behavioural differences and interactions, remain poorly understood. The goal of COEXIST is to apply cutting-edge methodologies from archaeological science, proteomics and genetics to small bone fragments to determine the behavioural variation of local late Neanderthals and Homo sapiens entering Europe, identify periods and regions of their coexistence, and clarify the role of subsistence differences in the eventual disappearance of Neanderthals.
State-of-the-art radiocarbon dates of recent archaeological discoveries have been revolutionary in showing that early groups of Homo sapiens had already arrived in Germany, Bulgaria and Czechia around 47,000 years ago. These findings raise fundamental questions concerning current models on the timing and extent of coexistence between late Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens, illustrating an overlap in this region for several millennia. They also emphasise the importance of the archaeology of this region. Central and southeast Europe, covering the area from Germany, Czechia and Slovakia, over Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, into Greece, were strategic crossroads between east and west during the Palaeolithic. However, the associated Palaeolithic archaeological record has not been the central focus in previous research agendas, and has not been examined systematically using the latest advances in archaeological science.
Summary|Background|Objectives|Methods|Laboratory|Team |Partners |News