Publications by authors named "Philip R Nigst"
Article Synopsis
- The handaxe is a key stone tool that exemplifies both the Acheulean and wider Palaeolithic eras, leading to ongoing debate over its shape variability and the influences of factors like raw material and usage.
- A study analyzed 1,097 handaxes from diverse regions (Africa, Levant, Western Europe) using 2D geometric morphometrics, revealing significant shape differences across sites but no link to material or resharpening effects.
- Findings suggest that handaxes were used differently based on site-specific needs, indicating various reduction strategies that reflect significant behavioral flexibility among early hominins.
Article Synopsis
- The Neolithic transition in Europe was led by Near Eastern farmers who gradually spread agriculture across the continent over 3,500 years.
- This expansion was uneven, particularly slowing down in northern regions due to climatic challenges affecting food production.
- The study revealed that farming and hunter-gatherer groups likely interacted more in these difficult climates, as poor crop yields may have encouraged cooperation.
Article Synopsis
- * Researchers studied genome sequences from the Sunghir site, dating back about 34,000 years, to understand the social structures of Upper Paleolithic humans.
- * The results indicated that the social organization of Upper Paleolithic humans was likely similar to that of modern hunter-gatherers, featuring limited kinship within small groups connected to a larger mating network.
The Neolithic transition was a dynamic time in European prehistory of cultural, social, and technological change. Although this period has been well explored in central Europe using ancient nuclear DNA [1, 2], its genetic impact on northern and eastern parts of this continent has not been as extensively studied. To broaden our understanding of the Neolithic transition across Europe, we analyzed eight ancient genomes: six samples (four to ∼1- to 4-fold coverage) from a 3,500 year temporal transect (∼8,300-4,800 calibrated years before present) through the Baltic region dating from the Mesolithic to the Late Neolithic and two samples spanning the Mesolithic-Neolithic boundary from the Dnieper Rapids region of Ukraine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe origin of contemporary Europeans remains contentious. We obtained a genome sequence from Kostenki 14 in European Russia dating from 38,700 to 36,200 years ago, one of the oldest fossils of anatomically modern humans from Europe. We find that Kostenki 14 shares a close ancestry with the 24,000-year-old Mal'ta boy from central Siberia, European Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, some contemporary western Siberians, and many Europeans, but not eastern Asians.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe first settlement of Europe by modern humans is thought to have occurred between 50,000 and 40,000 calendar years ago (cal B.P.).
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