© Avi Levin and Ilan Theiler, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv UniversityThe Nesher Ramla human mandible (left) and parietal bone (right).
Analysis of recently discovered fossils found in Israel suggest that interactions between different human species were more complex than previously believed, according to a team of researchers including
Binghamton University anthropology professor Rolf Quam.The research team, led by Israel Hershkovitz from Tel Aviv University, published its findings in
Science, describing recently discovered fossils from the site of Nesher Ramla in Israel. The Nesher Ramla site
dates to about 120,000-140,000 years ago, toward the very end of the Middle Pleistocene period.
The human fossils were found by Yossi Zaidner of the Hebrew University during salvage excavations at the Nesher Ramla prehistoric site, near the city of Ramla. Digging down about 8 meters, the excavators found large quantities of animal bones, including from horses, fallow deer and aurochs, as well as stone tools and human bones. The human fossils consist of a partial cranial vault and a mandible. Researchers made virtual reconstructions of the fossils to analyze them using sophisticated computer software programs and to compare them with other fossils from Europe, Africa and Asia. The results suggest that the Nesher Ramla
fossils represent late survivors of a population of humans who lived in the Middle East during the Middle Pleistocene period."The oldest fossils that show Neandertal features are found in Wesern Europe, so researchers generally believe the Neandertals originated there," said Quam. "However, migrations of different species from the Middle East into Europe may have provided genetic contributions to the Neandertal gene pool during the course of their evolution."
Comment: Meanwhile in Bronze Age Germany: Why are adult daughters missing from Early Bronze Age German cemeteries?
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