Reconstruction of human dispersal during Aurignacian on pan-European scale.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39198497.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-51349-y and PMC identifier 11358479.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The Aurignacian is the first techno-complex related with certainty to Anatomically Modern Humans in Europe. Studies show that they appeared around 43-42 kyr cal BP and dispersed rapidly in Europe during the Upper Palaeolithic. However, human dispersal is a highly convoluted process which is until today not well understood. Here, we provide a reconstruction of the human dispersal during the Aurignacian on the pan-European scale using a human dispersal model, the Our Way Model, which combines archaeological with paleoclimate data and uses the human existence potential as a unifying driver of human population dynamics. Based on the reconstruction, we identify the different stages of the human dispersal and analyse how human demographic processes are influenced by climate change and topography. A chronology of the Aurignacian human groups in Europe is provided, which is verified for locations where archaeological dating records are available. Insights into highly debated hypotheses, such as human dispersal routes, are provided.
Medical subject headings
- Archaeology