When the last Neanderthals were approaching the end of their existence45,000 years ago, they began to reach the Iberian Peninsula from the east of Europe the first groups of Homo sapiens. If the meeting had been narrated by the American novelist Fenimore Cooperthe Sapiens would be the pioneers and the Neanderthals would be the Native Americans.
The data confirm that, throughout all that time, the contact between the two there was for about 100,000 yearsin Middle Eastalso in Central Asia and later in the southeast europeanin the surroundings of the Balkan region.
It is likely that fruit of these varied exchanges between both groups, those first sapiens who advanced towards western Europe will already have in their genetic record the footprint of the neanderthals.
But there was a final scenariothat of the last encounter of a surely weakened species, the Neanderthals, and another in plenitude, the Homo sapiens. That definitive territory was the Iberian Peninsula.
The end of the Neanderthals coincides with the arrival of the Homo sapiens
The neanderthals, the authentic and true Europeans, spread to Central Asia, south to the Middle East and throughout Europe to the Iberian Peninsula. Were distributed in small groups away from each other and this made their relationships were very sporadic and they will rub more than once inbreeding. The DNA analysis have revealed that, for more than 100,000 years, they had a little genetic variabilitywith quite precarious demographic stability.
These conditions exposed them to demographic crises that they could take them on the verge of disappearance on more than one occasion without the Homo sapiens they had nothing to do with it.
Approximately 60,000 years ago its population experienced a notable declinewith increasingly isolated groups, mainly in southern and western Eurasia.
One of his shelterswhere Neanderthals persisted for thousands of years, was the Iberian Peninsulaespecially the coastal strip. There they found a good place to live.
The end of the Neanderthals coincides in time with the arrival of the Homo sapiensa human group that exploited the same resources and occupied identical landscapes and nichesand among which it seems that there were more meetings than we might initially think.
Refugees in southern Europe
In this process, as interesting as it is still complex to interpret, The Iberian Peninsula played a very important role.
On the one hand, it is the last place in Europe where the Homo sapiens, if we except the northernmost latitudes affected by the expansion of glaciers and very adverse weather. And, at the same time, it is the last known refuge for Neanderthalswhere we currently find the most recent evidence of their occupations .
In the time frame that goes from 45,000 to 42,000 years ago, The last Neanderthal communities abandoned the northern peninsula and it seems that They only lived in the southernmost area.
Around 42,000 and 41,000 years ago we only found evidence of Neanderthal groups south of the Duero basin, in the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula. At that time, the first sapiens were already at doors of the Iberian Peninsula.
The sapiens arrived south of the Iberian Peninsula at least 44,000 years ago (evidence of an early Aurignacian occupation has been found at Lapa do Picareiro in central Portugal). But Nothing allows us to confirm that the Sapiens were displacing the Neanderthals as they progressed.
What we share between Neanderthals and Sapiens
Today we know that Neanderthals and sapiens shared many more things than those that could separate them. In the first sapiens sites on the peninsula, as in the last Neanderthal occupations, it has been identified a similar subsistence pattern: we hunted and consumed the same species of animals in the same areas. The technologies Neanderthals used, although somewhat different, share a similar degree of complexity with those of our direct ancestors. What is even more interesting: Both Neanderthals and Sapiens had complex symbolic behaviors. It is already admitted, although not unanimously, that they created art.
If they had so much in common, Why didn’t they both survive? Perhaps because their social behavior and demographic balance – more precarious in Neanderthals and more successful in Sapiens – made ours They will multiply more quickly and effectively.
And we are left alone
The disappearance of the Neanderthals is something that we still do not know how to explain completely, we couldn’t even agree. It is likely that it was due to a sum of factors, to a perfect storm that the Neanderthals could not overcome. Surely, the fate of the different Neanderthal groups throughout Europe was varied and different in each case, without ruling out the fusion on some occasions with groups of sapiensin that way DNA data seem to point more and more intensely.
As to what happened in Iberiathere is some catastrophic theories who blame the Homo sapiens or to a supposed inability of the Neanderthals to adapt to changes and possible environmental crises. But none of this seems to convincingly justify its extinction. There are more varied and complex issues to define, such as its possible isolation and the difficulty of continuing to develop its particular and necessary social systemwhich may shed more light on its ending.
A Lonely end for the last Iberian Neanderthalswhich occurred between 40,000 and 35,000 years ago, and which could well have been written by Fenimore Cooper. Although, in this case, The “last Mohicans” were the last Neanderthals.
David Alvarez AlonsoFull Professor of Prehistory, Complutense University of Madrid, Complutense University of Madrid.
This article was originally published in The Conversation. read the original.
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