Spatiotemporal reconstruction of Corded Ware and Bell Beaker burial rituals reveals complex dynamics divergent from steppe ancestry.

Understanding how the dispersal of cultural innovations intersects with the spread of genes remains a central challenge in prehistoric archaeology. Here, we examine how the third millennium BCE Corded Ware (CW) and Bell Beaker (BB) burial traditions disseminated across Europe and their relation to the influx of steppe ancestry. To investigate these spatiotemporal dynamics during one of Europe's most transformative periods, we compiled a dataset of radiocarbon dates from 967 burials, applying kernel density estimation alongside optimal linear estimation.

The Uluzzian and Châtelperronian: No Technological Affinity in a Shared Chronological Framework.

Unlabelled: The Châtelperronian and Uluzzian techno-complexes are identified in western Europe in the same stratigraphic position, between the late Middle Palaeolithic and other Upper Palaeolithic assemblages. Both industries include retouched artefacts with abrupt retouch and arched backs, and radiometric dating indicates that these two technocomplexes belong to the same window of time. Here, we provide a detailed, qualitative technological comparison of two Châtelperronian and two Uluzzian lithic assemblages based on a collaborative, first-hand examination of these collections.

Optimal linear estimation models predict 1400-2900 years of overlap between Homo sapiens and Neandertals prior to their disappearance from France and northern Spain.

Recent fossil discoveries suggest that Neandertals and Homo sapiens may have co-existed in Europe for as long as 5 to 6000 years. Yet, evidence for their contemporaneity at any regional scale remains highly elusive. In France and northern Spain, a region which features some of the latest directly-dated Neandertals in Europe, Protoaurignacian assemblages attributed to Homo sapiens appear to 'replace' Neandertal-associated Châtelperronian assemblages.

Quantifying differences in hominin flaking technologies with 3D shape analysis.

Genetic and climate-driven estimates of past population dynamics are increasingly influential in broader models of hominin migration and adaptation, yet the contribution of stone artifact variability remains more contentious. Scientists are increasingly recognizing the potential of unretouched stone flakes ('flakes') in exploring existing models of hominin behavioral evolution. This is because flakes (1) were produced by all stone tool manufacturing groups in the past, (2) are abundant from the inception of the archaeological record up into the ethnographic present, and (3) preserve under most conditions.

Introducing platform surface interior angle (PSIA) and its role in flake formation, size and shape.

Four ways archaeologists have tried to gain insights into how flintknapping creates lithic variability are fracture mechanics, controlled experimentation, replication and attribute studies of lithic assemblages. Fracture mechanics has the advantage of drawing more directly on first principles derived from physics and material sciences, but its relevance to controlled experimentation, replication and lithic studies more generally has been limited. Controlled experiments have the advantage of being able to isolate and quantify the contribution of individual variables to knapping outcomes, and the results of these experiments have provided models of flake formation that when applied to the archaeological record of flintknapping have provided insights into past behavior.