Did the last Neanderthals live close to the Arctic Circle?

Remains of the Mousterian culture recently discovered near the Arctic Circle are over 28,500 years old, over 8,000 years after the time when Neanderthals were thought to have disappeared 

Remains of the Mousterian culture recently discovered near the Arctic Circle are over 28,500 years old, more than 8,000 years after the time when Neanderthals were thought to have disappeared. This discovery by an international multidisciplinary team, including researchers from CNRS challenges previous theories. How did the Neanderthals continue to live when Homo sapiens had already migrated to Europe at this time? The results of the study were published in the journal Science on May 13, 2011.

A hallmark of the Mousterian culture in the Middle Paleolithic period (300,000-33,000 years before our era), is the use of a very wide variety of flint tools, mainly by Neanderthal man in Eurasia, but also by Homo sapiens in the Near East.

This culture is considered archaic and not advanced enough to allow the Neanderthals to settle in the extreme northern climate, it is estimated that they disappeared about 33,000 to 36,000 years ago. They seem to have cleared the way for modern man, who took over all of Eurasia thanks to his mastery of more advanced technologies.

A multidisciplinary team of researchers from the French CNRS institute, in collaboration with scientists from Norway and Russia, examined the Byzovaya site located in the Ural Polar region in northern Russia. Using carbon 14 dating and an optical imaging technique, the team was able to accurately date the age of sediments and bones of mammoths and moose at the abandoned site. The bones showed signs of butchery by hunters belonging to the Mousterian culture.

The results piqued the scientists' curiosity in more ways than one. They show that the Mousterian culture may have lasted longer than scientists initially thought. What's more, the presence of the Mousterian culture has never been detected so close to the Arctic Circle. All other traces of this culture are at least a thousand kilometers to the south. Finally, at the Byzovaya site, in Eurasia, it seems to have been active only once, about 28,500 years ago, as mentioned over 8,000 years after the Neanderthals were considered an extinct race.

Therefore, this discovery raises many questions, regarding the way of organization of the Moustri society. Did the Neanderthals live longer than previously believed, or were the last to discover the characteristics of this culture were Homo sapiens? If so, is it possible to put a question mark next to the theories explaining that their culture became extinct because it was archaic? The following studies may solve these puzzles.

to the notice of the researchers