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)

最近对现代人类最早散布到欧亚大陆的重建表明，由于快速的气候变化和竞争，尼安德特人在埃布罗河以南的伊比利亚半岛以外的地区迅速消亡。在这场辩论中，很少有人关注克里米亚与这种模式相矛盾的数据。克里米亚有旧石器时代中期的遗址，是整个欧洲最年轻的遗址之一，并为尼安德特人的工业与现代人的旧石器时代晚期工业在时间和空间上的重叠提供了论据。目前，这个独特的场景依赖于一个只有最小年龄的绝对年表。此外，旧石器时代中期晚期和旧石器时代晚期早期的考古记录在技术和土地利用方式方面仍然不完整。该项目旨在通过扩大两个遗址的挖掘面积，以更好地保存或尚未探索的部分序列，并通过控制第三个遗址的现有序列来填补上述空白。与此同时，将重新评估以前用不太严格的方法调查的另外三个地点的组合和绝对日期。地质考古研究包括微形态分析、花粉、小型哺乳动物和malacofauna的研究以及分子和环境磁代用物的试点筛选。现有绝对年代学的规范是通过扩大放射性碳定年材料，使其符合最近开发的样品处理方法，并寻找独立的地层年代学标记，包括tephra。比较考古调查的重点是通过结合对不同行业的石器文物和大型哺乳动物群的分析，研究齿轮和土地利用模式对环境变化的适应。预期的结果将在理解最后一批欧洲尼安德特人的生存和灭亡以及现代人向欧亚大陆西部的扩散方面发挥关键作用。

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.