For the past seven years a team of international experts have worked together to provide a detailed study of the world occupied by the European Neanderthals 60,000-25,000 years ago (Oxygen Isotope Stage 3). The new chronological and archaeological database constructed by the Project sets the Neanderthal and modern human sites in a continent-wide framework of space and time. A mammalian data base maps the ecology and fauna of the period, providing fresh insights into the availability of plant and animal foods in different parts of the European landscape as Ice Age climate changed and fluctuated. New high-resolution computer simulations give detailed estimates of temperature and rainfall, and above all of the wind-chill and snow cover that would have had such an impact on both humans and on the resources they needed for survival. The results provide revolutionary insights into the glacial climate of Stage 3 and the landscapes and resources that influenced late Palaeolithic life-styles. New hypotheses are offered to explain why and how Neanderthal and modern human societies chose where to settle and why they moved on in the face of ever-changing conditions.
