The specific objectives of our
EFCHED project are:
- To ascertain whether the perceived cold adaptation characteristics of
Neanderthal populations are, at least in part, due to a biased picture of
the present predominantly 14C-based chronological data set of late Mousterian
sites that currently suggests that Neanderthals may have occupied the later
and cooler, more climatically-variable, part of OIS3 (42-26 cal BP) rather
than the warmer earlier (58-42 cal BP) time frame;
- To investigate a geographically discreet subset of the European late Mousterian
site data set - namely southern Russia and the Ukraine north and east of
the Black Sea - the geographical distribution of which is most likely to
have been significantly influenced by environmental factors due to its extreme
continental climate;
- To produce a data set of cross-validated non-14C age determinations from
a range of sample materials (burnt stone, windblown sediment and volcanic
tephra) from sites with relevant lithic industries in order to gain insight
into whether deficiencies in the 14C data set for the late middle Palaeolithic
beyond 30 ka cal BP are biasing our temporal perception of Neanderthal site
densities for this period;
- To assist future researchers by making a data set of cross-validated non-14C
age determinations available from southern Russia, Crimea and the north
Caucasus such that the middle Palaeolithic archaeology of this region can
be put in a wider European context thereby furthering integration in this
field;
- To highlight a possible methodological problem that may be influencing
our view of the degree of interaction between Neanderthal and anatomically
modern human (AMH) populations, for by underestimating the antiquity of
some late Mousterian sites we artificially increase the density of settlement
in the period of Neanderthal and AMH co-existence, thereby biasing a realistic
evaluation of inter-population interactions.
Lagat (Weasel Cave), North Ossetia
Preparing a section at Barakaevskaya Cave for sampling in 2004 |
Recording a cleaned section at Akhshtyr Cave in
2004 |
