Westernmost Europe constitutes a key location in determining the timing of the replacement of Neanderthals by anatomically
modern humans (AMHs). In this study, the replacement of late Mousterian industries by Aurignacian ones at the site
of Bajondillo Cave (Málaga, southern Spain) is reported. On the basis of Bayesian analyses, a total of 26 radiocarbon dates,
including 17 new ones, show that replacement at Bajondillo took place in the millennia centring on ~45–43 calibrated thousand
years before the present (cal ka bp)—well before the onset of Heinrich event 4 (~40.2–38.3 cal ka bp). These dates indicate that
the arrival of AMHs at the southernmost tip of Iberia was essentially synchronous with that recorded in other regions of Europe,
and significantly increases the areal expansion reached by early AMHs at that time. In agreement with human dispersal scenarios
on other continents, such rapid expansion points to coastal corridors as favoured routes for early AMH. The new radiocarbon
dates align Iberian chronologies with AMH dispersal patterns in Eurasia.
; García-Alix, Antonio; Vera-Peláez, José L.; Odriozola, Carlos; Riquelme-Cantal, José A.; Parrilla Giráldez, Rubén; Maestro González, Adolfo; Ohkouchi, Naohiko; Morales Muñiz, Arturo
