Volcanic ash layers illuminate the resilience of Neanderthals and early modern humans to natural hazards

John Lowe (1) , Nick Barton (2) , Simon Blockley (1) , Christopher Bronk Ramsey (3) , Victoria L. Cullen (3) , William Davies (4) , Clive Gamble (5) , Katharine Grant (6) , Mark Hardiman (1) , Rupert Housley (1) , Christine S. Lane (3) , Sharen Lee (3) , Mark Lewis (7) , Alison Macleod (1) , Martin Menzies (8) , Wolfgang Müller (8) , Mark Pollard (3) , Catherine Price (9) , Andrew P. Roberts (10) , Eelco J. Rohling (6) , Chris Satow (1) , Victoria C. Smith (3) , Chris B. Stringer (11) , Emma L. Tomlinson (8) , Dustin White (4, 9) , Paul Albert (8) , Ilenia Arienzo (12) , Graeme Barker (13) , Dušan Borić (14) , Antonio Carandente (15) , Lucia Civetta (16) , Catherine Ferrier (17) , Jean-Luc Guadelli (18) , Panagiotis Karkanas (19) , Margarita Koumouzelis (20) , Ulrich C. Müller (21) , Giovanni Orsi (12) , Joerg Pross (21) , Mauro Rosi (22) , Ljiljiana Shalamanov-Korobar (23) , Nikolay Sirakov (24) , Polychronis C. Tzedakis (1)

1 Department of Geography
2 Institute of Archaeology
3 Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art [Oxford]
4 Archaeology Department
5 Archaeology Department
6 Ocean and Earth Science [Southampton]
7 Palaeontology Department
8 Department of Earth Sciences [Egham]
9 Institute of Archaeology
10 RSES - Research School of Earth Sciences [ANU, Canberra]
11 Palaeontology Department
12 Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia
13 McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
14 Cardiff School of History, Ancient History, Archaeology and Religion
15 Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia
16 Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche [Naples]
17 PPP
18 PPP
19 Ephoreia of Palaeoanthropology-Speleology of Southern Greece
20 Ephoreia of Palaeoanthropology-Speleology of Southern Greece
21 Institute of Geosciences [Frankfurt am Main]
22 UNIV. PISA - Universita di Pisa Dip. Scienze Geologiche
23 National Institution Museum of Macedonia
24 NAIM - National Archaeological Institute and Museum

Marked changes in human dispersal and development during the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition have been attributed to massive volcanic eruption and/or severe climatic deterioration. We test this concept using records of volcanic ash layers of the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption dated to ca. 40,000 y ago (40 ka B.P.). The distribution of the Campanian Ignimbrite has been enhanced by the discovery of cryptotephra deposits (volcanic ash layers that are not visible to the naked eye) in archaeological cave sequences. They enable us to synchronize archaeological and paleoclimatic records through the period of transition from Neanderthal to the earliest anatomically modern human populations in Europe. Our results confirm that the combined effects of a major volcanic eruption and severe climatic cooling failed to have lasting impacts on Neanderthals or early modern humans in Europe. We infer that modern humans proved a greater competitive threat to indigenous populations than natural disasters.

Mots clés: Volcanic eruption; Volcanic ash; Campanian Ignimbrite; Cryptotephra deposits; Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition; Neanderthal; Earliest anatomically modern human; Human dispersal

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire; Volcanologie; Milieux et Changements globaux

John Lowe, Nick Barton, Simon Blockley, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Victoria L. Cullen, et al.. Volcanic ash layers illuminate the resilience of Neanderthals and early modern humans to natural hazards. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2012, 109 (34), pp.13532-13537. ⟨10.1073/pnas.1204579109⟩. ⟨halshs-00779286⟩