Scholars who study human evolution have long debated about how environmental conditions may have stimulated the migration of Anatomical Modern Human (AMH) outside of Africa. Issues surrounding the AMH colonization across Eurasia have generated intense controversy and has arisen questions about the ability of AHM to adapt to diverse environmental conditions and wider climatic fluctuations over the time.
The migrations of AHM in Eurasia is associated with the spread of the Aurignacian technology around 45-42Kyr during a warm interval, the so-called Stable Warm, of the Late Glacial Period. Questions surrounding the character and chronology of such dispersal are a focus of great interest since many scholars associate the spread of AHM with the extinction of the Neanderthal. It has also been noticed that the time when the Neanderthal gradually began to disappear, around 37 kyr BP, corresponds to a period of steady deterioration of the climate.
Studies of the Eurasian climate, for the period comprised between 45 to 20 kyr BP, generally lacks detailed proxy about factors that might have potentially affected how AMH lived.
Moreover, when these proxies are available, they do not adequately reflect local differences in past climates.
Within this workshop, we intend to encourage archaeologists, palaeoanthopologists, bio-archaeologists and expert of chronology to exchange views on the issue of AMH dispersal in Eurasia and to debate about the adaptive strategies developed by AMH and Neanderthal to face climate changes and environmental constraints.