Kissing cousins : interaction and interbreeding between Neandertals and modern humans

The goal of this thesis is to analyze archaeological evidence for cultural, physical, and genetic interactions between early modern humans and coexisting Neandertal populations and use the conclusions drawn from these analyses to determine whether or not Neandertals and modern humans had the ability to interbreed with each other. The conclusion I propose is that Neandertals and modern humans did indeed have the capacity to interbreed with each other, although the extent to which this interbreeding occurred cannot be determined with what evidence we have. A more definitive conclusion as to the extent of interbreeding between these two populations requires the discovery of additional physical and genetic evidence that can be analyzed and compared to what we have now.