TY - JOUR AU - John Lowe AU - Nick Barton AU - Simon Blockley AU - Christopher Bronk AU - Victoria Cullen AU - William Davies AU - Clive Gamble AU - Katharine Grant AU - Mark Hardiman AU - Rupert Housley AU - Christine Lane AU - Sharen Lee AU - Mark Lewis AU - Alison MacLeod AU - Martin Menzies AU - Wolfgang Müller AU - Mark Pollard AU - Catherine Price AU - Andrew Roberts AB -

Marked changes in human dispersal and development during the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition have been attributed to massive volcanic eruption and/or severe climatic deterioration. We test this concept using records of volcanic ash layers of the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption dated to ca. 40,000 y ago (40 ka B.P.). The distribution of the Campanian Ignimbrite has been enhanced by the discovery of cryptotephra deposits (volcanic ash layers that are not visible to the naked eye) in archaeological cave sequences. They enable us to synchronize archaeological and paleoclimatic records through the period of transition from Neanderthal to the earliest anatomically modern human populations in Europe. Our results confirm that the combined effects of a major volcanic eruption and severe climatic cooling failed to have lasting impacts on Neanderthals or early modern humans in Europe. We infer that modern humans proved a greater competitive threat to indigenous populations than natural disasters.

BT - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America DO - 10.1073/pnas.1204579109 N2 -

Marked changes in human dispersal and development during the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition have been attributed to massive volcanic eruption and/or severe climatic deterioration. We test this concept using records of volcanic ash layers of the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption dated to ca. 40,000 y ago (40 ka B.P.). The distribution of the Campanian Ignimbrite has been enhanced by the discovery of cryptotephra deposits (volcanic ash layers that are not visible to the naked eye) in archaeological cave sequences. They enable us to synchronize archaeological and paleoclimatic records through the period of transition from Neanderthal to the earliest anatomically modern human populations in Europe. Our results confirm that the combined effects of a major volcanic eruption and severe climatic cooling failed to have lasting impacts on Neanderthals or early modern humans in Europe. We infer that modern humans proved a greater competitive threat to indigenous populations than natural disasters.

PY - 2012 EP - 1\textendash6 T2 - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America TI - Volcanic ash layers illuminate the resilience of Neanderthals and early modern humans to natural hazards VL - 109 ER -