There is a widely accepted theory that the final outpost of Neanderthals –Homo neanderthalensis– was in southern Iberia and they shared this space with modern humans –Homo sapiens– as they advanced into the northern part of the peninsula.
However, an international study, in which researchers of the Spanish National Distance Education University (UNED) participate, questions this hypothesis and also casts doubt that ancestors of modern humans interbred with Neanderthals over thousands of years.
Doubt in the recent theory
“It is improbable that the last Neanderthals of central and southern Iberia would have persisted until such a late date, approximately 30,000 years ago, as we thought before the new dates appeared” explains Jesús F. Jordá, researcher of the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology of the UNED and co-author of the study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Since the 1990s researchers had argued convincingly that the ‘last Neanderthals’ sought refuge in the Spanish peninsula and were extinct around 30,000 years ago, which allowed enough time for the Neanderthals to mix their DNA with that of modern humans, who entered the Iberian peninsula more than 10,000 years earlier.
It is commonly accepted that some of the latest dates for Neanderthal fossils and Mousterian industries are found south of the Ebro valley in Iberia at ca. 36 ka calBP (calibrated radiocarbon date ranges). In contrast, to the north of the valley the Mousterian disappears shortly before the Proto-Aurignacian appears at ca. 42 ka calBP. The latter is most likely produced by anatomically modern humans.
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