What exactly defines Homo sapiens? The most appropriate comparison to address this question would be with Neanderthals, the counterpart to the final divergence in human evolutionary history. Neanderthals were widely distributed across Eurasia, coexisting with Homo sapiens for hundreds of thousands of years. Eventually, Homo sapiens, originating from Africa, expanded into Eurasia around 50,000 years ago, ultimately leading to the extinction of Neanderthals. Recent studies have unveiled instances of interbreeding between these two lineages in the late Pleistocene Levant region. Moreover, the replacement of Neanderthals by Homo sapiens was not a straightforward process but rather a complex one.

This symposium aims to invite active researchers who study in the Levant region and Europe to discuss aspects of hybridization, interaction, and replacement between the two groups from the perspectives of paleoanthropology, focusing on the analysis of human fossil remains, and archaeology, with a focus on the analysis of cultural artifacts. Furthermore, we intend to broaden the discussion to include the physical and cultural foundations of Homo sapiens' survival during the Ice Age and subsequent cultural and civilizational developments in various parts of the world.