NOVOSIBIRSK, RUSSIA—Cosmos Magazine reports that Kseniya Kolobova of Siberia’s Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Richard Roberts of the University of Wollongong, and their colleagues have discovered 74 Neanderthal bones, animal fossils, plant remains, and more than 3,000 stone blades in Siberia’s Chagyrskaya Cave. Kolobova said the blades resemble Micoquian blades produced by Neanderthals living some 1,800 miles away in what is now Eastern Europe. “Central and Eastern Europe is really the heartland of this Micoquian tradition,” Roberts explained. Kolobova and Roberts said the presence of Micoquian blades in Chagyrskaya Cave suggests that Neanderthals migrated to Siberia from Eastern Europe, but, they add, such tools have not been found in Siberia's Denisova Cave, where Neanderthal remains have also been recovered. Did more than one wave of Neanderthals migrate to Siberia? Genetic studies have indicated that the Neanderthals arrived in Siberia in at least two waves, since the later Neanderthal occupants of Denisova Cave were more closely related to European Neanderthals than they were to earlier Neanderthals who lived in the same cave. Roberts said Micoquian blades could also help researchers track Neanderthal migration. “It’s just yet another indication that Neanderthals were just as creative, just as industrious, just as explorative in their nature as modern humans were,” he explained. To read about the recently discovered first evidence for Neanderthals in the Zagros Mountains, go to "World Roundup: Iran."
