IPHES-CERCA Awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant to Investigate the Disappearance of Neanderthals in the South Caucasus

The Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA) has been awarded a prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant, one of the most competitive funding schemes of the European Union, granted to Dr Phil Glauberman, researcher at the institute. The funding around €2 million will make it possible to develop CHRONOPOP, a pioneering initiative aimed at clarifying one of the great enigmas of our evolution: how, when and under what environmental conditions Neanderthals disappeared, and what role Homo sapiens populations may have played in this process.

CHRONOPOP brings together a broad, international team of specialists from Europe, Asia and the United States, linked to institutions such as the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Germany), the International Center for Climate Physics (South Korea), the National Research Centre for Human Evolution (Burgos), and the universities of Vienna, Leiden, Tübingen and Winchester, among others. This network will make it possible to combine archaeological, paleogenetic and environmental data with high-performance computational modelling, generating for the first time both regional and continental models of the human metapopulations that inhabited Eurasia between 100,000 and 30,000 years ago.

A Project to Resolve the Final Chapter of Neanderthals

The CHRONOPOP project will analyse population dynamics of hominins during the Late Pleistocene in the Armenian Highlands, a key region for understanding the extinction of Neanderthals and the expansion of Homo sapiens. Located at the crossroads between the Near East and Eurasia, this area acted as a glacial refuge and preserves an exceptional archaeological record that remains understudied using modern methodologies.

Current data suggest that Mousterian technology (typically associated with Neanderthals) may have persisted until 31,000–35,000 years ago, several millennia later than in many other Eurasian regions. Moreover, its chronology overlaps with the appearance of the earliest Upper Palaeolithic industries, usually associated with Homo sapiens, around 39,000 years ago. This potential overlap is one of the central questions the project aims to assess.

“The disappearance of Neanderthals was neither a uniform nor a simultaneous process across the continent. We know there were refugia where they persisted longer, and the Armenian Highlands could be one of the key scenarios,” explains Dr Glauberman in the project.

Scientific Objectives and Approach

CHRONOPOP aims to establish with precision the chronology of the end of Mousterian technology in Armenia and to determine which hominins (Neanderthals or Homo sapiens) produced these tools over time. To achieve this, the project will implement an unprecedented dating programme combining radiocarbon, uranium-series, luminescence, ESR, palaeomagnetism, and the revolutionary Compound Specific Radiocarbon Analysis (CSRA), which allows for far more robust dates in critical Late Pleistocene contexts.

Beyond chronology, the project will investigate the technological and behavioural adaptations that may have enabled these human communities to persist in a complex and changing environment. The team will study lithic technology, subsistence strategies, mobility, and landscape use at key sites such as Yerevan-1, Tsitsernakaberd-1 and Barozh-12. IPHES-CERCA will play an expert role in the functional analysis of tools through use-wear techniques, residue analysis and characterisation of microscopic traces preserved on obsidian surfaces. The project will also support the creation of a new traceology laboratory in Yerevan, strengthening local scientific capacities and knowledge transfer.

One of the most innovative components of CHRONOPOP is the generation of the first high-resolution climate record for the Late Pleistocene in Armenia, based on the study of stalagmites from the caves of Mozrov, Arjeri and Magelan. Until now, no speleothem from the region had been analysed to reconstruct temperature, precipitation and hydroclimatic variability across glacial and interglacial periods.

These data, combined with high-performance climate modelling, will make it possible to identify which areas of the South Caucasus acted as environmental refugia for human populations, and how rapid climatic changes influenced their dynamics, dispersals and eventual replacement.

Scientific and Institutional Impact

Securing this ERC grant represents a major international recognition for IPHES-CERCA and further consolidates its role as a leading centre for research on human evolution. The results of CHRONOPOP will redefine the chronology of Neanderthal disappearance in the region closest to the South Caucasus, improve our understanding of interactions between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, and generate new models of human responses to Pleistocene climate change—reinforcing Catalonia and Spain within the map of European scientific excellence.

About the ERC Consolidator Grants

The Consolidator Grants of the European Research Council are among the most prestigious distinctions for mid-career scientists. Their aim is to support researchers with outstanding track records so they can develop ambitious and highly innovative projects, often capable of redefining entire disciplines.

In this year’s call, the European Research Council (ERC) awarded 349 Consolidator Grants with a total investment of €728 million, aimed at promoting the most innovative and potentially transformative lines of research. Catalonia received a total of 11 grants.