Skhul and Qafzeh hominins

32°41′18″N 35°19′06″E / 32.68833°N 35.31833°E / 32.68833; 35.31833

Skhul 5 replica
Qafzeh 9 replica

The Skhul and Qafzeh hominins or Qafzeh–Skhul early modern humans[1] are hominin fossils discovered in Es-Skhul and Qafzeh caves in Israel. They are today classified as Homo sapiens, among the earliest of their species in Eurasia. Skhul Cave is on the slopes of Mount Carmel; Qafzeh Cave is a rockshelter near Nazareth in Lower Galilee.

The remains found at Es Skhul, together with those found at the Nahal Me'arot Nature Reserve and Mugharet el-Zuttiyeh, were classified in 1939 by Arthur Keith and Theodore D. McCown as Palaeoanthropus palestinensis, a descendant of Homo heidelbergensis.[2][3][4]

  1. ^ Trinkaus, E. (1993). "Femoral neck-shaft angles of the Qafzeh-Skhul early modern humans, and activity levels among immature near eastern Middle Paleolithic hominids". Journal of Human Evolution. 25 (5). INIST-CNRS: 393–416. doi:10.1006/jhev.1993.1058. ISSN 0047-2484.
  2. ^ The Palaeolithic Origins of Human Burial, Paul Pettitt, 2013, p. 59
  3. ^ Human Adaptation in the Asian Palaeolithic: Hominin Dispersal and Behaviour during the Late Quaternary, Ryan J. Rabett, 2012, p. 90
  4. ^ The Stone Age of Mount Carmel: report of the Joint Expedition of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem and the American School of Prehistoric Research, 1929–1934, p. 18