Neanderthal Man and Homo sapiens in Central and Eastern Europe [and Comments and Reply]

Abstract

This paper is a review of the fossil evidence bearing upon the problem of the origin and evolution of Homo sapiens and his relationship to Neanderthal Man, with special attention to the finds from Central and Eastern Europe, less well-known to the international community than those of Western Europe and elsewhere. Emphasis is placed on new discoveries supplementing the existing network of finds and on the reinterpretation of earlier finds through recent studies. The importance of finds of the remains of several individuals at a single site, which offer valuable insight into the morphological variability of the prehistoric population, is stressed. On the basis of this survey of the evidence, the following conclusions (among others) are drawn: (1) The Neanderthal finds from Central and Eastern Europe display pronounced morphological variability, even within a single site, and this variability is associated with wide variation in cultural inventory. These finds show, to various degrees and in various frequencies, many of the characteristics that we find fully developed and universal in H. sapiens sapiens. Chronologically, they extend into the W 1/2 interstadial, the period to which the oldest finds in this region of Upper Paleolithic Man of the modern type also belong. (2) The Upper Paleolithic fossil man finds and, also, less markedly, those of the Neolithic, include individuals of the so-called primitive sapient type, displaying archaic morphological characteristics, again to various degrees and in various frequencies. Associated with this physical variation is, again, wide variation in culture. (3) The evidence thus seems to demand that we classify Neanderthal Man as H. sapiens neanderthalensis and Upper Paleolithic Man as H. sapiens sapiens.

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