Anthropologists map Neanderthals' path across Europe and Eurasia

https://phys.org/news/2025-06-anthropologists-neanderthals-roads-europe-eurasia.html
Recent scholarship has concluded that Neanderthals
made a second major migration from Eastern Europe
to Central and Eastern Eurasia between 120,000 and
60,000 years ago. But the routes they took have
long been a mystery—primarily because there are
few archaeological sites connecting the two regions.
In a new analysis, a team of anthropologists—using
computer simulations—has offered a map of possible
pathways, which concludes that Neanderthals likely
used river valleys as natural highways and traveled
during warmer periods to move approximately 2,000
miles (3,250 km) in less than 2,000 years.
"Our findings show that despite obstacles like
mountains and large rivers, Neanderthals could have
crossed northern Eurasia surprisingly quickly,"
explains Emily Coco, who began the study as a New
York University doctoral student and is now a
postdoctoral researcher at Portugal's University
of Algarve.
...
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0325693
Agent-based simulations reveal the possibility
of multiple rapid northern routes for the second
Neanderthal dispersal from Western to Eastern
Eurasia
Abstract
Genetic and archaeological evidence imply a second
major movement of Neanderthals from Western to
Central and Eastern Eurasia sometime in the Late
Pleistocene. The genetic data suggest a date of
120−80 ka for the dispersal and the archaeological
record provides an earliest date of arrival in the
Altai by ca. 60 ka. Because the number of
archaeological sites linking the two regions is
very small, the exact route taken and its timing
have been the matter of considerable debate. In
particular, climate change in this period modified
landscapes considerably, changing the cost of
moving in different directions. Here, we apply
agent-based least-cost path simulations for the
first time to Neanderthals, showing that they most
likely took a northern route through the Urals and
southern Siberia under all climate scenarios.
Agents leaving either the southern or the northern
Caucasus Mountains reach the Altai in less than
2000 years during two time windows when the climate
was mild, in MIS 5e (the Last Interglacial) and in
MIS 3. The latter coincides with the dated presence
of Neanderthals at Chagyrskaya and Okladnikov Caves
in the Altai. The results of this modeling approach
demonstrate a remarkable east-west geographic
connectivity of northern Eurasia via river
corridors despite the presumed barriers of the Ural
Mountains and major north-south flowing rivers. Our
results highlight the unique strengths of agent-based
simulations to reconstruct pathways for ancient
migrations.