Re-examination of the Neandertal and Archaic Homo sapiens complex in Levantine

Southwest Asia.

Major Sites to be Covered.

“Neandertal” characteristics

Low, long skull Heavy Brow Ridges Robust Skeleton and Cranium Retromolar gap. No chin. Large, cold adapted nose. Occipital Bun

Cro-Magnon Man, or AMHS, from Europe.

“Classic” Neandertals from Western Europe.

Qafzeh.

Qafzeh Skull, considered to be AMHS.

Qafzeh

Qafzeh VI, also considered AMHS

Skhul

Skhul, also considered AMHS

Skhul side view.

Location of Amud.

Amud.

Amud 1

Amud 1.

Amud Comment:

Don Johansen (1994): “Amud I shows affinities with the neandertals of Shandiar Cave in Iraq and Tabun, but is also has some similarities to the Skhul and Qafzeh populations of early Homo sapiens.”

Kebara.

Tabun.

A Neandertal with a Chin!

Neandertals have been referred to affectionately as “chinless wonders”, as they do not characteristically possess a chin.

At the Tabun site, specimen II Rak(1998) states: “I would like to stress, therefore, that my insistence on recognizing a true chin in Tabun II is based on the topography of the anterior section of the mandible, which consists of the unique morphological components defined as constituting a true chin”.

Amud and Skhul compared.

Qafzeh VI and Tabun Compared.

Qafzeh IX and Skhul VI

Shared Time.

Thermoluminescence Dates

Tabun 386-151 kya Qafzeh 102-85 kya Skhul 119-118 kya Kebara 61.6-48.3 kya Amud 70-50 kya

Electron Spin Resonance Dates

TABUN 386-151 kya AMUD 59-43 kya

Time Line Conflict for linear evolution/gradualism

The problem arises here that the supposed AMHS sites of Qafzeh and Skhul predate some of the supposed Neandertal sites.

Explanations of why this situation resulted is the “ebb and flow theory”, where cold adapted Neandertals come down when the glaciers expand, and AMHS retreat to Africa.

Bar-Yosef describes the Levant as the “central bus station”

Multiregional Evolution vs. Replacement Theories.

Multiregional Evolution posits that our species evolved in the various areas that Homo erectus/ergaster colonized in the first ‘out of Africa’ migration, and evolved into AMHS with a constant gene flow out of Africa

Replacement Theory says there were only two migrations out of Africa, with the latter one coming ~100 kya and replacing all prior homininds completely

Shared Technology and Culture.

At all sites in the Levant, the Mousterian Culture is present and dominant.

Earlier Levallois technology is present at the oldest site of Tabun, which is to be expected

There is no technological ‘tool kit’ in the Levant comparable to the advances present in Cro-Magnon sites in Europe.

Mousterian Technology.

More Mousterian Technology

My argument.

Shared/overlapping time. Shared/overlapping space. Shared/overlapping morphology. Shared material culture in the form of the

Mousterian technology. If you have all of these represented in one

region, you have one variable population and not two separate species.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/neanderthals/skulls.html