ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the time when Neanderthal populations and their cultural remains were replaced and/or changed due to cultural and biological mixing with those we refer to as "modern humans". It reviews how radiocarbon dating has helped to illuminate events surrounding the demise of the Neanderthals and the first cultural manifestations attributed to modern humans across Eurasia. The latter are archaeologically and biologically visible as immigrants from Africa who, during the last phase of their dispersals, moved along several paths across Eurasia. The chapter explores the colonization of Sahul, often referred to as occurring along the "southern route" of modern humans across Asia. It involves the debate concerning the correlations between the volcanic eruption on the Aegean island of Santorini and the presence of its pumice in Egyptian and Levantine contexts during the days of the Egyptian ruler Tuthmosis III.
