Zilhao&D'Errico (eds) .- The Chronology of the Aurignacian and of the Transitional Technocomplexes.pdf

Proceedings of Symposium 6.1 of the XIVth Congress of the UISPP
(University of Liège, Belgium, September 2-8, 2001)

Nobody can deny it. In spite of the countless conferences, the dozens of books and the
myriads of research and synthesis papers published since the discovery of the Saint-Césaire
skeleton, a comprehensive picture of the emergence of the Upper Paleolithic in Europe and
of the replacement of Neandertals by anatomically modern humans (“the Transition”) is still
beyond our grasp. But pieces of that puzzle are falling into place, and this is happening in
conjunction with a remarkable change of attitude by many researchers.
The production of primary data, conducted with the often-frustrated hope that new discoveries
and more consistent records will in a distant future provide answers to today’s illdefined
questions, is gradually giving way to the idea that gaining a better insight into this
period requires the elaboration of robust hypotheses and their testing against the archeological
record. We are also learning that such testing would be of little use without a previous
thorough critical analysis of the evidence from the main sites, including discussions of
their taphonomy, surviving material culture, and dating.
It is also becoming clear that evaluating the empirical consistency of the different scenarios
proposed for the transition requires looking beyond the frontiers of national research
traditions. Even when bearing well identifiable features, a piece of a puzzle is of no help in
getting the picture if we do not see where it may fit in. An additional reason for not losing
this panoramic perspective is that the Neandertal affaire as a whole may be seen as a key
piece of a bigger puzzle in which Africa and Asia are also included. The characterization of
the cultural trajectories of human populations living in these vast territories during the
Upper Pleistocene must be at the root of any model for the emergence of symbolism, language
and the other “modern” traits that make our societies different, in many respects,
from those of our closest living relatives and certainly of a number of our ancestors.
It is with these priorities in mind that, over the last decade, the editors of this book have
proposed a reappraisal of the nature and timing of the biological and cultural interactions
that took place in Europe between Neandertals and anatomically modern humans, and discussed
the general implications of their results for the emergence of cultural modernity. It
is in this framework that we envisioned the need to bring together colleagues working on
this topic for a broad and open debate on this controversial issue, and to transform such an
event into a widely available publication. The XIVth Congress of the International Union
of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences, held in Liège in September 2001, provided the
opportunity for such a meeting. The two-day symposium that we organized within the
framework of this congress brought together 66 leading international scholars, who presented
31 papers, and a very large and interested audience, which virtually transformed this
meeting into a conference within a conference. The heated though friendly debates that took
place in the symposium room, not to mention the many hours spent in discussing the same
topics at night while enjoying excellent Belgian beers, greatly contributed to a clarification
of the opinions expressed by the attending scientists.