Ecogeographic Variation in Neandertal Diet: Evidence from Occlusal Microwear

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For over 100,000 years, the Neandertals inhabited a variety of ecological zones across western Eurasia, between glacial and interglacial times. To elucidate the still poorly understood effects of climatic change and variability versus competition on Neandertal subsistence patterns, this study will employ occlusal microwear analysis to reconstruct the dietary habits of Neandertal groups from numerous widely dispersed sites in Europe and the Middle East. These wear patterns will be compared to those of Pre-Neandertal and early Upper Paleolithic groups from the same regions. The microwear signatures of modern hunter-gatherer populations with known and diverse dietary habits will be used for comparative and interpretive purposes. This project is significant because it will shed light on the controversial issues concerning aspects of Neandertal behavior and fate. This project will have broader impacts in that it will result in the assembly of a large collection of high-resolution casts of Neandertal and early Upper Paleolithic dentitions. Because these fossils are scattered throughout Europe and parts of the Middle East and are often inaccessible, this collection, which will be housed at Stony Brook University, will provide an invaluable resource to a broad range of researchers interested in the Paleolithic. In addition, this project entails collaboration with scientists and graduate students at other universities and institutions in both the United States and Europe, and all molar microwear images and data resulting from this project will be made broadly available through a website maintained at Stony Brook University. This project will integrate research and education by involving undergraduate students in the data collection and analysis process. Finally, the proposed activity promotes the participation of under-represented groups in paleoanthropological research inasmuch as the co-PI is a Lebanese woman.