45,000-Year-Old Crimean Neanderthal

From SciNews:

The Crimean Peninsula contains numerous well-preserved, stratified Paleolithic sites, with many spanning within the transitional period in terms of bioculture and hominin occupations of approximately 47,000 to 42,000 years ago.

Based on previous radiocarbon dates, the peninsula has been described as a refugium for late surviving Neanderthals just before their disappearance.

Starosele, a rock-shelter that is positioned within a steep canyon that comprises four distinct cultural layers, has been studied since 1952.

“The site’s archaeological layers contain rich cultural material,” said Emily Pigott, a doctoral student at the University of Vienna, and her colleagues.

“Levels 1, 2, and 4 are associated with stone tools from an archaeological industry called the Crimean Micoquian stone tool industry, which is linked to Neanderthals.”

In the study, the authors aimed to screen for potential human remains among thousands of fragmented bones from the Starosele site.

Of the 150 bone fragments they analyzed, 97.3% had sufficient collagen preservation for taxonomic identification.

Around 93% belonged to horses and deer, with smaller numbers of mammoth and wolf remains, suggesting that Paleolithic humans in Crimea relied heavily on horse hunting. (Read more.)