Full Description
It is now widely accepted that by the later Middle Palaeolithic Neanderthals possessed a wide range of social and practical skills. More recently, researchers have become interested in how these skills actually emerged; in effect, the challenge now is to document the process by which Middle Pleistocene hominids "became Neanderthals". This book explores the development of classically Neanderthal behaviours in Europe between MIS 9-6, focusing on the British record, especially stone tools as durable residues of human action. As a geographically constrained study area, the progressively robust British chronometric framework now allows previously invisible patterning in technological behaviour, hominid habitat preference and demography during this period to be investigated. This book examines the immense technological variation that is apparent between British sites, in order to present a picture of changing human behaviour and the emergence of European Neanderthal adaptations.
Contents
1. Introduction2. Historical Background; Previous and Current Research Frameworks3. The Earliest Middle Palaeolithic of the Thames; Sites of the Lynch Hill/Corbets Tey Terrace (MIS 10-9-8) 4. Neanderthals of Southern Britain; Sites of the Taplow/Mucking Terrace of the Thames (MIS 8-7-6) and Deposits of Equivalent Date5. The Development of Neanderthal Behaviours in Early Middle Palaeolithic Europe6. Changing Technological Practice and the Exploitation of Levallois Technology7. The Middle Palaeolithic Settlement History of the British Isles8. Living on the Edge; Resettling British Neanderthals in Middle Palaeolithic EuropeBibliography with Manuscript SourcesAppendix: Flint Analysis MethodologyIndex
