The Neanderthal Legacy
eBook - ePub

The Neanderthal Legacy

An Archaeological Perspective from Western Europe

  1. 480 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Neanderthal Legacy

An Archaeological Perspective from Western Europe

About this book

The Neanderthals populated western Europe from nearly 250,000 to 30,000 years ago when they disappeared from the archaeological record. In turn, populations of anatomically modern humans, Homo sapiens, came to dominate the area. Seeking to understand the nature of this replacement, which has become a hotly debated issue, Paul Mellars brings together an unprecedented amount of information on the behavior of Neanderthals. His comprehensive overview ranges from the evidence of tool manufacture and related patterns of lithic technology, through the issues of subsistence and settlement patterns, to the more controversial evidence for social organization, cognition, and intelligence. Mellars argues that previous attempts to characterize Neanderthal behavior as either "modern" or "ape-like" are both overstatements. We can better comprehend the replacement of Neanderthals, he maintains, by concentrating on the social and demographic structure of Neanderthal populations and on their specific adaptations to the harsh ecological conditions of the last glaciation.


Mellars's approach to these issues is grounded firmly in his archaeological evidence. He illustrates the implications of these findings by drawing from the methods of comparative socioecology, primate studies, and Pleistocene paleoecology. The book provides a detailed review of the climatic and environmental background to Neanderthal occupation in Europe, and of the currently topical issues of the behavioral and biological transition from Neanderthal to fully "modern" populations.

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Yes, you can access The Neanderthal Legacy by Paul A. Mellars in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & World History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication Page
  5. Contents
  6. List of Tables
  7. List of Illustrations
  8. Preface
  9. Chapter 1: Introduction
  10. Chapter 2: The Environmental Background to Middle Palaeolithic Occupation
  11. Chapter 3: Stone Tool Technology
  12. Chapter 4: Tool Morphology, Function and Typology
  13. Chapter 5: The Procurement and Distribution of Raw Materials
  14. Chapter 6: Industrial Taxonomy and Chronology
  15. Chapter 7: Middle Palaeolithic Subsistence
  16. Chapter 8: Sites in the Landscape
  17. Chapter 9: The Spatial Organization of Middle Palaeolithic Sites
  18. Chapter 10: The Significance of Industrial Variability
  19. Chapter 11: Neanderthal Society
  20. Chapter 12: The Neanderthal Mind
  21. Chapter 13: The Big Transition
  22. References
  23. Index of Sites
  24. General Index