The SUBSILIENCE project has transformed our understanding of Neanderthal extinction during MIS3 (~60–30 ka). Working across key regions in Iberia, France, Italy, Croatia and Serbia, we combined archaeozoology, paleoproteomics, multi-isotope analysis, high-precision dating and large-scale paleoecological modelling to explore how rapid climate oscillations, changing resources and the spread of Homo sapiens interacted over time. This integrative approach, rooted in intensive fieldwork and innovative laboratory and computational methods, has advanced knowledge of Neanderthal decline and generated open data, public outreach and original heritage applications.
Across four interlinked research lines, SUBSILIENCE reconstructed human subsistence, environments and ecosystems in unprecedented detail. Archaezoological studies of 21 sites, supported by ZooMS analysis of heavily fragmented bones and rigorous taphonomy, revealed flexible, context-dependent diets in late Neanderthals and early H. sapiens, and produced a global online database (www.subsilience.es) that standardises faunal identification. Parallel work on chronology and palaeoenvironment built a Europe-wide radiocarbon and OSL framework and used multi-isotope proxies, including a novel deuterium approach, to track vegetation, humidity and mobility at local scale. Landscape reconstructions and paleoart were integrated with simulations of net primary productivity, herbivore biomass, and human–carnivore competition across Europe, showing that shifts in carrying capacity structured where Neanderthals could persist, whereas the arrival and connectivity of H. sapiens increased extinction risk. A final synthesis of genetic data and climate proxies demonstrated that Neanderthal disappearance was not a single abrupt replacement but a mosaic process linked to regional declines in productivity, with Iberia serving as a late refugium.
The scientific output has been exceptional: 64 publications (51 in JCR journals), 48 conference presentations and 9 invited talks. The project trained one PhD student, five postdoctoral researchers, and a lab technician, and supported six Master’s theses and other PhDs. These achievements placed the PI among the world’s top 2% most-cited.
Dissemination and exploitation reached far beyond academia. Particularly innovative is PrehGastro, which translates the project’s findings into “archaeogastronomy” experiences that combine visits to prehistoric caves and landscapes with menus inspired by documented Prehistoric diets, thereby integrating these elements into cultural tourism strategies.
