The dispersal of modern humans into an Eastern European refugial area of late Neanderthals: interdisciplinary studies of contemporaneous industries from the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in the Crimea (Ukraine)

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Recent reconstructions of the earliest dispersal of modern humans into Eurasia argue for a fast demise of Neanderthals in regions other than the Iberian Peninsula South of the Ebro caused by rapid climate changes coupled with competition. In this debate, only little attention has been paid to data from Crimea that contradicts to this model. Crimea yields Middle Palaeolithic sites that are among the youngest in entire Europe and gave arguments for a temporal and spatial overlap of Neanderthal industries with Upper Palaeolithic ones produced by modern humans. At the moment, this unique scenario relies on an absolute chronology with minimal ages only. In addition, the archaeological record of the latest Middle Palaeolithic as well as the early Upper Palaeolithic is - with regard to technology and land use pattern - still incomplete. The project aims to fill the gaps listed above by enlarging the excavated areas of two sites to better preserved or yet unexplored parts of the sequences, and by controlling the existing sequence of a third site. Parallel to this, assemblages and absolute dates from additional three sites investigated previously by less rigorous methods will be re-evaluated. Geo-archaeological research includes micromorphological analysis, the study of pollen, small mammals and malacofauna as well as a pilot screening of molecular and environmental magnetic proxies. A specification of the existing absolute chronology is intended by an enlargement of radiocarbon dated materials subject to recently developed sample treatment methods, and the search for independent stratigraphical chronological markers including tephra. Comparative archaeological investigations focus on adaptation of gear and land use patterns to environmental changes by combining the analysis of lithic artefacts and large mammal fauna in different industries. The expected results will play a key role in the understanding of the survival and demise of the last European Neanderthals as well as the dispersal of modern humans into Western Eurasia.