Journal
HUMAN BIOLOGY
Volume 81, Issue 2-3, Pages 287-307Publisher
WAYNE STATE UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.3378/027.081.0310
Keywords
NEANDERTHALS; LITHIC INDUSTRY; PALEOLITHIC; CLIMATE CHANGE; CARRYING CAPACITY
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Funding
- National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS)
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Using a database of 499 archaeological assemblages from 332 sites in Europe, we statistically test a model of the economic reactivity of the hunter-gatherer production system to climatic variations. This model predicts an increase in the diversity of lithic tools during harsh cold periods, in order to maintain carrying capacity, and a reduction during favorable climatic periods. Diversity was measured from the variations in flint tool distributions in traditional Bordes typological categories, using Shannon's derived diversity index (D). Reactivity was measured in 190 archaeological assemblages from 103 sites of the Middle Paleolithic in Europe (mainly France). The Neanderthals show technological inertia in the development and use of lithic tools for 200,000 years, despite the four cool to cold macroclimatic periods they experienced.
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