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Europe: Early Upper Paleolithic

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Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology

State of Knowledge and Current Debates

The transition from the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic is a period of the most vital changes in the evolution of population and European cultures when Neanderthals had been replaced by Anatomically Modern Humans and the Middle Paleolithic cultures (Mousterian and Micoquian) were replaced by the Upper Paleolithic cultures. The process of changes that were taking place in Europe between 45 and 30 Kyr BP was not uniform it is nature, but complex and multilinear (Mellars & Stringer 1989; Mellars 1990; Mellars et al. 2007; Kozłowski & Sacchi 2007). In terms of physical anthropology, the concepts of local evolution of Neanderthals into Anatomically Modern Humans have to be rejected on the basis of recent palaeogenetic analyses. Neanderthals evolved locally in western Eurasia beginning from more than 200 Kyr until their extinction between about 30 and 28 Kyr BP (Stringer & Gamble 1993). These populations created a variety of Middle Paleolithic...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland

    Janusz K. Kozłowski

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  1. Janusz K. Kozłowski
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Claire Smith

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Kozłowski, J.K. (2014). Europe: Early Upper Paleolithic. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1858

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1858

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