Beyond the cold steppes: Neanderthal landscapes and the neglect of flora

Understanding the environmental contexts in which Neanderthals lived is essential for interpreting their behavioral adaptations, resource use, and ecological strategies. These landscapes shaped the availability of plant and animal resources, influencing patterns of mobility, technology, and survival. This article presents an integrative reconstruction of Neanderthal landscapes across the full extent of their Eurasian distribution, combining palaeoecological synthesis, archaeobotanical records, and scientifically grounded palaeoart applied to Iberian case studies with particular emphasis on plant species—traditionally marginalized in a predominantly zoocentric paleoartistic tradition. Building on a sustained review articulated through a series of landscape “chronicles,” the study contextualizes palaeovegetation mosaics across stadial and interstadial phases during the Middle and Late Pleistocene. By examining the interplay between vegetation dynamics, climatic oscillations, and human presence, we explore the spatial heterogeneity of Neanderthal environments, the persistence of forest elements in southern glacial refugia, the existence of migratory corridors and coastal platforms, and the shifting expression of the Mediterranean biome under Quaternary rhythms. The palaeoartistic reconstructions are firmly rooted in palaeobotanical evidence and serve as heuristic devices for generating hypotheses about Neanderthal habitat structure, ecological plasticity, and niche breadth. These visualizations move beyond mere illustration to render palaeobiogeographic complexity and to support a broader discussion of Neanderthal eco-evolutionary interactions, including resource use, refugial continuity, and interspecific contact. Importantly, this work seeks to challenge the entrenched popular view that Neanderthals must be associated exclusively with treeless, open glacial landscapes, instead highlighting the diversity of vegetated environments in which they lived. • Application of botanically-focused palaeoart to reconstruct Neanderthal plant environments in Iberia. • Critical review of Neanderthal habitats across Eurasian biogeographical regions. • Integration of palaeoecological, archaeobotanical, and climatic evidence to explore Neanderthal niche dynamics. • Neanderthal landscapes characterized by spatial heterogeneity and persistent forest refugia. • New palaeobiogeographical framework challenging the open-steppe stereotype of Neanderthal ecology.