Neanderthals survived at least 3,000 years longer than previously thought, in a small enclave in what is now southern Spain.
Experts uncovered three new sites on the Iberian Peninsula that contained distinctly Neanderthal artefacts, dating back 37,000 years.
Previous research suggested that our early cousins were wiped out, most likely by our ancestors interbreeding with them, around 40,000 years ago.
Experts uncovered three new sites on the Iberican Peninusula that contained distinctly Neanderthal artefacts, dating back 37,000 years. The finds uncovered at Cueva Antón, Finca Doña Martina and Abrigo de La Boja, include stone tools used for working with wood
Previous research suggested that our early cousins were wiped out, most likely by our ancestors interbreeding with them, around 40,000 years ago. Neanderthals survived at least 3,000 years longer than previously thought, in a small enclave in what is now southern Spain
The authors of the study, an international team from Portuguese, Spanish, Catalonian, German, Austrian and Italian research institutions, examined a number of finds uncovered at the sites.
The artefacts uncovered at Cueva Antón, Finca Doña Martina and Abrigo de La Boja, over a period of ten years of fieldwork, include stone tools and decorative shells only previously found at locations populated by Neanderthals.
The team say their findings suggest that the process of modern human populations absorbing Neanderthals was not a regular, gradual wave of advance but a ‘stop-and-go, punctuated, geographically uneven history.’
They believe future studies may uncover evidence of other geographically isolated populations of Neanderthals surviving beyond previous estimates.
In a written statement, Dr João Zilhão, from the University of Barcelona and lead author of the study, said: ‘Technology from the Middle Palaeolithic in Europe is exclusively associated with the Neanderthals.
‘In three new excavation sites, we found Neanderthal artefacts dated to thousands of years later than anywhere else in Western Europe.
‘Even in the adjacent regions of northern Spain and southern France the latest Neanderthal sites are all significantly older.’
The Middle Palaeolithic was a part of the Stone Age, and it spanned from 300,000 to 30,000 years ago.
It is widely acknowledged that during this time, anatomically modern humans started to move out of Africa.
Early humans began to assimilate Eurasian populations, including Neanderthals, through interbreeding.
According to the new research, this process was not a straightforward, smooth one.
The type of tools uncovered have only previously found at locations populated by Neanderthals. The find suggest the process of modern humans absorbing Neanderthals through interbreeding was not a regular, gradual wave
Archaeologists also uncovered ornamental shells favoured by our early cousins. Experts believe future studies may uncover evidence of other isolated populations of Neanderthals surviving beyond previous estimates
Instead, it seems to have been punctuated, with different evolutionary patterns in different geographical regions.
In 2010, the team published evidence from the site of Cueva Antón in Spain that provided unambiguous evidence for symbolism among Neanderthals.
Putting that evidence in context and using the latest radiometric techniques to date the site, the researchers show Cueva Antón is the most recent known Neanderthal site.
‘We believe that the stop-and-go, punctuated, uneven mechanism we propose must have been the rule in human evolution,’ Dr. Zilhão said.
‘This helps explaining why Palaeolithic material culture tends to form patterns of geographically extensive similarity while Palaeolithic genomes tend to show complex ancestry patchworks.’
The key to understanding this pattern, says Dr. Zilhão, lies in discovering and analysing new sites, not in revisiting old ones.
Although finding and excavating new sites with the latest techniques is time-consuming, he believes it is the approach that pays off.
He added: ‘There is still a lot we do not know about human evolution and, especially, about the Neanderthals.
Neanderthals (museum model pictured) are a human-like relative that evolved from a common ancestor, but split from humans between 1,000,000 and 800,000 years ago
Neanderthals lived alongside our ancestors in Eurasia for thousands of years. Pictured is the migration of Neanderthals and humans from Africa to Eurasia
‘Our textbook ideas about Neanderthals and modern humans have been mostly derived from finds in France, Germany and Central Europe.
‘During the Ice Ages these were peripheral areas.
‘Probably as much as half of the Palaeolithic people who ever lived in Europe were Iberians.
‘Ongoing research has begun to bear fruit, and I have no doubt that there is more to come.’
The full findings were published in the journal Heliyon.