A study described in Phys.Org
Human hunting weapons may not have caused the demise of the Neanderthals says that the weapons that modern humans were using when they first entered Europe were no better than the ones that the Neanderthals were using. One of the ideas of why we replaced the Neanderthals is that we had better technology and more advanced social structures. The study found that one of the items that has been pointed at as an example of the better technology was actually developed in Europe, not in Western Asia. Therefore it couldn't not have been one of the reasons we could move into Europe from Western Asia.
My opinion is that they may have a point, but there was something going on with modern humans that allowed them to move into areas that had previously been used by the Neanderthals. The technology may not have been as highly developed as some have thought, but there could certainly have been advances in social organization that enabled us to move into the Neanderthal territory.
Bill Gill
