ABSTRACT
In paleoanthropology, few topics have received the attention or fostered the controversy that surrounds those questions associated with the bio-cultural relationships of Neanderthals and modern humans. Although both mitochchondrial and, very recently, nuclear DNA point to a clear biological divergence of Neanderthals from the human (Homo sapiens sapiens) linage some 300,000 years ago, it is equally clear that Neanderthals followed a number of behavioral practices that resembled those of early humans. Why then did Neanderthals, after persisting for so long, disappear under the wave of modern human expansion ca. 29,000 years ago?
