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The physical, cultural, and bio-genetic landscape of the last Neanderthals

Project description

Investigating the extinction of the Neanderthals

The Neanderthals vanished 40 000 years ago after surviving for 350 000 years across a territory stretching from the Iberian Peninsula to southern Siberia. Their extinction remains poorly understood, partly due to limited data availability. Gathering more extensive archaeological evidence from core regions within the Neanderthals’ range is crucial, especially where interactions with other human species were significant. The ERC-funded LAST NEANDERTHALS project aims to investigate the decline of Neanderthals between 60 000 and 40 000 years ago. The project will collect new data from understudied areas in Asia and Europe to comprehend population dynamics and the extinction of Neanderthals. This research promises insights into the fate of all archaic human groups.

Objective

Our closest relatives, the Neanderthals, abruptly disappeared 40 thousand years ago (ka) after having endured for 350 thousand years in a territory ranging from the Iberian Peninsula to southern Siberia. Decades-long research attempted to address the cultural aspects and the demographic and environmental factors that triggered their demise. Yet, there are no widely accepted scenarios that satisfactorily explain the extinction of the Neanderthal. These shortcomings are in part because the data available originated from a limited number of sites mainly in western and central Europe, which we now know were peripheral to the range of the last Neanderthals. To compellingly reconstruct the chain of events that led to Neanderthal’s extinction, the scientific community needs new extensive archaeological data, possibly from the core regions of the last Neanderthals’ range. Areas of western and central Asia and eastern and southeastern Europe were at the core of this range, served as gateways to marginal areas, and witnessed Neanderthals’ bio-cultural interactions with Sapiens and Denisovans. For the first time, three PIs with vast expertise on Neanderthals’ culture, biology, and paleoenvironments will synergistically attempt to bridge the knowledge gap between the core and the periphery of their range at the time of their decline between 60-40ka. Project LAST NEANDERTHALS will 1) accurately collect, date, integrate, and model new high-resolution cultural, bio-genetic, and environmental data from understudied areas in western and central Asia and eastern and southeastern Europe; 2) provide an unprecedented perspective on the last Neanderthals’ population dynamics; 3) offer a comprehensive and compelling explanation of the mechanisms that led to their extinction by integrating data from their entire range and formulating and testing nuanced hypotheses using new models and simulations; 4) serve as a proxy for the fate shared by all archaic human groups.

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-ERC-SYG - HORIZON ERC Synergy Grants

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2023-SyG

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Host institution

ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 4 473 145,50
Address
VIA ZAMBONI 33
40126 Bologna
Italy

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Region
Nord-Est Emilia-Romagna Bologna
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 4 473 145,50

Beneficiaries (5)

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