The Great Shift: From Middle to Upper Palaeolithic

A Summit Colloquium on a Fundamental Question

On 16 June 2026, the Amphithéâtre Marguerite de Navarre at the Collège de France hosted a full-day international colloquium devoted to one of palaeontology's most contested questions: what really happened between the last NeanderthalsNeanderthalsA fossil humanity of Eurasia, robust and cold-adapted, extinct around 40,000 years before present.→ and the first Homo sapiensHomo sapiensThe present-day human species, which emerged in Africa around 300,000 years ago, the only surviving human lineage after the extinction of Neanderthals and Denisovans.→ in Europe? Organised by Jean-Jacques Hublin, holder of the Palaeontology Chair since 2021, the event brought together seven leading specialists , archaeologists, palaeogeneticists, anthropologists , to confront their data on the Middle to Upper PalaeolithicUpper PalaeolithicThe final phase of the Palaeolithic (c. 45,000 to 10,000 years ago), marked by Homo sapiens in Europe, art, ornaments and a succession of cultures (Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean, Magdalenian).→ transition.

The lectures were filmed and posted on the Collège de France's Sciences de la vie YouTube channel, forming a remarkable free resource for anyone seeking to understand where the science stands today. Here is our overview, lecture by lecture, with the scientific context that frames each one.

The Transition: Rupture or Continuum?

Between roughly 50,000 and 35,000 years ago, the European archaeological record undergoes a dramatic transformation. Flake-based MousterianMousterianThe stone-tool industry typical of Neanderthals, based on the Levallois flaking technique.→ industries give way to blade and bladeletBladeletA small flint blade, often under a centimetre wide, used as a projectile armature or tool in the Upper Palaeolithic.→ production, worked bone tools, shell and perforated tooth ornaments, and , crucially , the first figurative art in human history. During this same interval, Neanderthals disappear.

The coincidence long fuelled a simple narrative: Homo sapiens arrives, Neanderthals retreat. But data accumulated since the 2010s , ancient DNAAncient DNAGenetic material preserved in old remains, often degraded, sequenced with cutting-edge techniques.→ sequencingSequencingReading the order of the bases (A, T, G, C) of a DNA molecule; high-throughput sequencing reads millions of fragments in parallel.→, high-precision uranium-thorium datingUranium-thorium datingA method dating calcite formations (stalagmites, flowstones) via uranium decay into thorium; useful beyond the range of radiocarbon.→, reassessment of transitional assemblages , paint a far more nuanced picture: periods of coexistence spanning centuries to millennia, probable cultural exchange, geographically variable extinction timelines, and "transitional" industries whose biological attribution remains disputed.

This is precisely the colloquium's central tension: is the transition a biological rupture (species replacement) or a more gradual process involving gene flow, cultural transfer, and local adaptation? As the seven lectures demonstrate, the answer likely differs by region.

The Filmed Lectures , Our Breakdown

Lecture 1 , Jean-Jacques Hublin: Framing the Question

Lecture 2 , Tsenka Tsanova: Central and Eastern Europe

Lectures 3, 5: Far East, Genetics, Western Europe (coming soon)

Three further lectures round out the morning and early afternoon programme. Nicolas Zwyns (UC Davis) presents evidence that Upper Palaeolithic-like blade assemblages appear in Mongolia as early as 45,000 years ago , sometimes predating European equivalents. Arev Pelin Sümer analyses ancient DNA from transitional-period individuals, revealing asymmetric gene-flow signals that point to repeated but geographically bounded contacts between Neanderthals and modern humans. Marie Soressi revisits the Western European "transitional" industries , above all the Châtelperronian , in light of new taphonomic analyses and refined radiocarbon dating. All three lectures will be available on the Collège de France channel shortly.

Bacho Kiro has become the reference site for Initial Upper Palaeolithic studies. Genomic analysis of the individuals found there reveals a recent Neanderthal introgressionIntrogressionThe lasting transfer of DNA segments from one population or species into another through repeated interbreeding, detectable in genomes long afterwards.→: their Neanderthal ancestors were at most six generations removed. A sign that coexistence was not merely geographic, but also reproductive.

Lecture 6 , Juliette Henrion: Arcy-sur-Cure

Lecture 7 , Solange Rigaud: Ornaments, Social Networks and Cultural Diversification

The proliferation of worked bone, antler and ivory is one of the clearest markers of the transition. These materials allow forms impossible to achieve in flintFlintA hard, brittle siliceous rock, knapped by prehistoric people to produce blades, points and sharp tools.→ , slender projectile points, hooks, eyed needles , and reflect a level of technical planning and cultural transmission that marks a qualitative shift in human behaviour.

What the Science Says , Beyond the Lectures

Several recent studies illuminate the questions raised at this colloquium. A 2023 paper in Nature confirmed the presence of Homo sapiens at Ranis (Germany) as early as 45,000 years ago , individuals adapted to the cold steppeSteppeA vast semi-arid, treeless grassland of Eurasia, suited to nomadic herding and the horse; a corridor for the movement of peoples and technologies in later prehistory.→ of Isotope Stage 3, well before the durable European occupation by modern humans. A 2024 study in Science Advances modelled Neanderthal, sapiens coexistence dynamics relative to ecosystem carrying capacity: in low-productivity environments, Neanderthals disappeared before the full arrival of modern humans, driven out by indirect resource competition alone. A 2025 paper in PNAS on La Roche-à-Pierrot (Saint-Césaire) brought new data on Châtelperronian shell ornaments and pigments associated with Neanderthal remains, showing strong similarities with contemporaneous Aurignacian productions , opening anew the question of independent invention versus acculturation.

Our Take

This Collège de France colloquium is as much a lesson in method as a scientific update. It shows that the Middle, Upper Palaeolithic transition is not an event but a process , geographically heterogeneous, biologically complex, culturally multiform. There was no cognitive "big bang" that suddenly endowed Homo sapiens with superiority over Neanderthals. There were contacts, borrowings, local extinctions, regional persistence, and ultimately a shift whose mechanisms we still only partially understand.

The lectures available now , and those coming online shortly , form an exceptional panorama of where research stands in 2026. They are free, open to all, and scientifically rigorous in a way rarely matched in public-facing content. Bookmark the channel.

• Hublin (1) , The transition, in question
• Tsanova (2) , Central and Eastern Europe: from Levallois to laminar
• Henrion (6) , Arcy-sur-Cure: France's last Neanderthals
• Rigaud (7) , Ornaments, social networks and cultural diversification

Lectures by Zwyns (Far East), Sümer (genetics) and Soressi (Western Europe) will be linked here as soon as they appear on the Sciences de la vie , Collège de France channel.

Sources

• Collège de France , Colloquium programme (16 June 2026): college-de-france.fr
• Hublin J.-J. et al. (2020) , Initial Upper Palaeolithic Homo sapiens from Bacho Kiro Cave, Bulgaria. Nature, 581, 299, 302.
• Trevorrow A. et al. (2023) , Homo sapiens reached higher latitudes of Europe by 45,000 years ago. Nature, 615, 388, 395.
• Camarós E. et al. (2024) , Neanderthal coexistence with Homo sapiens in Europe was affected by herbivore carrying capacity. Science Advances, 10, eadi4099.
• Caron F. et al. (2025) , Châtelperronian cultural diversity at its western limits. PNAS, 122, e2508014122.