Neanderthals of Crimea - Creative generalists of the late Middle Paleolithic. Contextualizing the leaf point industry Buran-Kaya III, Level C

Within this article, Neanderthal behavioral competences are studied using the examples of the leaf point industry of Buran-Kaya III, Level C and the coexisting Crimean Middle Paleolithic technocomplexes Crimean Micoquian and (Western) Crimean Mousterian. Detailed empiric technological studies give evidence to functional and technological overlaps of the Buran-Kaya/III C assemblage both with the Eastern Micoquian and with the Kostenki-Streletskaya industry of the Mid-Don region. That fore it is concluded that identical Middle Palaeolithic populations produced both technocomplexes. Moreover, peculiarities of Mousterian and Micoquian faunal and lithic assemblages indicate that both represent complementary land-use strategies which belong to the same land-use system. Both Middle Paleolithic technocomplexes featured generalist subsistence strategies, which enabled Neanderthals to cope successfully with environmental conditions, as long as circumstances were more or less stable. Within this context, the Buran-Kaya III/C assemblage reveals an adaptive behavioral shift from this generalist to a more specialized behavior. This is indicated by the application of the specific biconvex technology for the production of target-specific specialized tool-sets such as individual gear. For several reasons it is likely, that demographic and related cultural and economic changes were responsible for this shift in adaptive behavior.