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2018-01-31 08:33:00   •   ID: 1714

Misliya Cave: Homo sapiens passed by 200 k.a. ago!

Figure 1
This is a large (ca 13 cm) , unretouched elongated Tabun-D Point, characterized by a chapeau de gendarme  (Fig.3) base found decennia ago in the Carmel region.  

Normally this blog is not a blog on “ breaking news”, but the detection of AMH at the Middle Pleistocene site Misliya Cave in Isreal is worth commenting....

Figure 2
Misliya Cave ,located on the western slopes of Mount-Carmel is a collapsed cave, consisting of three terraces about slightly to the south of Nahal Sefunim, ca  12 km south of Haifa. While in the lower terrace, Acheulo-Yabroudian artifacts were incorporated in abundance, the upper terrace is characterized by a Tabun-D Ensemble. The middle terrace contains mixture of Acheulo - Yabrudian and Levallois-Mousterian.

Several lines of evidence date the upper terrace tp 180-200 k.a. BP in good accordance to a "Tabun-D" ensemble.

Figure 3
Early specimens of Homo Sapiens in Africa and the Levant are notorious rare. Omo Kibish (Ethiopia), dates by 40Ar/39Ar to 172-196 k.a, Herto (Ethiopia) by the same method to 150-154. k.a. Recently Jebel Irhoud in Morocco  was dated by several lines of evidence to 315 k.a. Skhul and Qafzeh in Israel are 90-100 k.a. old. Homo sapiens at Manot cave may be ca  55 k.a. old. Now skull fragments with indisputable and specific clues of Homo Sapiens were detected at  Misliya within the tabun-D ensemble  (177-194 k.a. old). 

In 2015, fossils of anatomically modern humans were found in China that dated to as much as 120,000 years old. These new findings are suggestive that members of the Homo sapiens clade left Africa earlier than previously thought.

Paradigms are steadily changing. While 10 years ago the cradle of Homo Sapiens was suggested to be in East Africa- Jebel Irhoud, Manot and Misliya Cave show, that other regions could be of equal importance and that the reconstruction of hypothetical " Homo Sapiens waves" is a simplifed look on the genesis of our ancestors.

By the way- it is interesting to look on the artifacts: Omo Kibish is characterized by Levallois technology with a strong and beautiful bifacial component, Jebel Irhoud would fit into the Ferrassie Mousterian technocomplex, Misliya is Tabun-D Levallois Mousterian and Manot may be Levallois Mousterian or even an Early Upper Paleolithic.

Misliya Cave Multi-license with GFDL and Creative Commons CC-BY 3.0

Figure 4


Suggested Reading & hear Françoiz Breut - Everyone Kisses a Stranger

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