Archaeological evidence for two separate dispersals of Neanderthals into southern Siberia

Abstract

Neanderthals were once widespread across Europe and western Asia. They also penetrated into the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia, but the geographical origin of these populations and the timing of their dispersal have remained elusive. Here we describe an archaeological assemblage from Chagyrskaya Cave, situated in the Altai foothills, where around 90,000 Middle Paleolithic artifacts and 74 Neanderthal remains have been recovered from deposits dating to between 59 and 49 thousand years ago (age range at 95.4% probability). Environmental reconstructions suggest that the Chagyrskaya hominins were adapted to the dry steppe and hunted bison. Their distinctive toolkit closely resembles Micoquian assemblages from central and eastern Europe, including the northern Caucasus, more than 3,000 kilometers to the west of Chagyrskaya Cave. At other Altai sites, evidence of earlier Neanderthal populations lacking associated Micoquian-like artifacts implies two or more Neanderthal incursions into this region. We identify eastern Europe as the most probable ancestral source region for the Chagyrskaya toolmakers, supported by DNA results linking the Neanderthal remains with populations in northern Croatia and the northern Caucasus, and providing a rare example of a long-distance, intercontinental population movement associated with a distinctive Paleolithic toolkit.

Keywords: Altai Mountains; Chagyrskaya Cave; Micoquian artifacts; Middle Paleolithic; Siberian Neanderthals.

Fig. 1.

Chagyrskaya Cave. (A) Site location in the Altai region of southern Siberia. (B) View of the cave entrance, which faces north. (C) Plan of the cave interior showing the excavated area (in blue). (D and E) Stratigraphic profiles along the two transects (A–A′ and B–B′, respectively) shown in C.

Fig. 2.

Stone artifacts from Chagyrskaya Cave, sublayer 6c/1. (A–C) Photographs, line drawings, and cross-sectional profiles of three plano-convex bifacial tools diagnostic of Micoquian Bocksteinmesser and Klausennischemesser types. (Scale bar, 5 cm.)

Fig. 3.

Site map and principal component analysis of MP and UP lithic assemblages. (A) Location of sites with Levallois-Mousterian and Micoquian assemblages used for statistical comparison with Chagyrskaya Cave artifacts. (B) Scatterplot of the first two principal components for assemblages from Chagyrskaya Cave, three other Altai sites (Denisova Cave, Kara-Bom, Ust’-Karakol-1), and Obi-Rakhmat in central Asia (n = 40). (C) Scatterplot of the first two principal components for assemblages from Chagyrskaya and Micoquian sites in eastern Europe (Crimea, Donbass-Azoz, Caucasus) and central Europe (n = 26). (D) Scatterplot of the first two principal components for assemblages from Chagyrskaya Cave, Levallois-Mousterian sites in the Altai and central Asia, and European Micoquian sites (n = 67). The italic numbers correspond to the following sites and assemblages: 1, Chagyrskaya Cave (sublayer 6c/1); 2, Ust’-Karakol-1 (layers 17 to 13); 3, Ust’-Karakol-1 (layer 18); 4, Kara-Bom (layer MP2); 5, Kara-Bom (layer MP1); 6 to 8, Denisova Cave (entrance zone, layers 10 to 8, respectively); 9 to 13, Denisova Cave (main chamber, layers 22, 21, 19, 14, and 12, respectively); 14 to 19, Denisova Cave (east chamber, layers 15, 14, 12, and 11.4 to 11.2, respectively); 20, Strashnaya Cave; 21, Ust’-Kanskaya Cave; 22, Ust’-Karakol-1 UP (layer 11); 23, Kara-Bom UP (layers 6 and 5); 24, Kara-Bom UP (layers 4 to 1); 25, 26, Denisova Cave UP (entrance zone, layers 7 and 6, respectively); 27, Denisova Cave UP (main chamber, layer 11); 28, Denisova Cave UP (east chamber, layer 11.1); 29, Tumechin-1; 30, Tumechin-2; 31, Tumechin-4; 32 to 39, Obi-Rakhmat (layers 21.1, 20, 19.5 to 19.1, and 14.1, respectively); 40, Kulbulak, layer 23); 41 to 45, Kabazi V (subunits I/4A–II/7, III/1, III/1A, III/2, and III/5, respectively); 46, Karabai I (layer 4); 47, 48, Kabazi II (units IIA–III and V–VI, respectively); 49, Kiik-Koba (level IV); 50, Buran Kaya III (layer B); 51, Starosele (level 1); 52, Chokurcha I (unit IV); 53 to 59, Zaskalnaya V (units I, II, IIа, III/1–III/9–1, III/10–III/14, IIIA, and IV, respectively); 60 to 62, Sesselfelsgrotte (units G4–G2, respectively); 63, Antonovka I; 64, Antonovka II; 65, Barakaevskaya Cave; 66, 67, Mezmaiskaya Cave (layers 2B-4 and 3, respectively).