TY - JOUR
T1 - Before the massive modern human dispersal into Eurasia
T2 - A 55,000-year-old partial cranium from Manot Cave, Israel
AU - Weber, Gerhard W.
AU - Hershkovitz, Israel
AU - Gunz, Philipp
AU - Neubauer, Simon
AU - Ayalon, Avner
AU - Latimer, Bruce
AU - Bar-Matthews, Miryam
AU - Yasur, Gal
AU - Barzilai, Omry
AU - May, Hila
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA
PY - 2020/6/20
Y1 - 2020/6/20
N2 - Genetic and archaeological models predict that African modern humans successfully colonized Eurasia between 60,000 and 40,000 years before present (ka), replacing all other forms of hominins. While there is good evidence for the first arrival in Eurasia around 50-45ka, the fossil record is extremely scarce with regard to earlier representatives. A partial calvaria discovered at Manot Cave (Western Galilee, Israel) dated to >55 ka by uranium–thorium dating was recently described. Since then, other findings indicated an early dispersal of modern humans out-of-Africa between 194 and 177ka (Misliya-1) or possibly even earlier at 210ka (Apidima 1), and a quite long existence of Homo sapiens in Africa (Jebel Irhoud, ~300ka). While the faces of these early Homo sapiens appear quite modern, the shape of the braincase seems to lack behind, reaching the modern state only around after 35ka. Here, new data and approaches were applied to the Manot 1 calvaria. The ecto- and endocranial shape analyses based on micro-computed tomography data and a landmark-semilandmark approach using multiple reconstructions of the incomplete calvaria confirm that Manot 1 is unequivocally modern human. Its endocranial shape is markedly different from the earliest known Homo sapiens and close to the Levantine Qafzeh/Skhul assemblage (120-90ka) as well as modern humans, but still shows some deviations from both groups. The absence of other Homo sapiens fossils in the Levant between the Qafzeh/Skhul and Manot populations is not supportive for the hypothesis of a continuous occupation or the local evolution of modern humans. It suggests that Manot 1 represents a population migrating out-of-Africa and reaching the Levantine corridor during warmer and wetter climatic conditions over the Northern Sahara and the Mediterranean. Manot 1 shows that both modern humans and Neanderthals (e.g. Kebara, Amud) contemporaneously inhabited the Levant during the Middle to Upper Paleolithic interface. The endocranial shape of Manot 1 might indicate that this population had not yet fully reached the brainshape of modern humans evident after 35ka.
AB - Genetic and archaeological models predict that African modern humans successfully colonized Eurasia between 60,000 and 40,000 years before present (ka), replacing all other forms of hominins. While there is good evidence for the first arrival in Eurasia around 50-45ka, the fossil record is extremely scarce with regard to earlier representatives. A partial calvaria discovered at Manot Cave (Western Galilee, Israel) dated to >55 ka by uranium–thorium dating was recently described. Since then, other findings indicated an early dispersal of modern humans out-of-Africa between 194 and 177ka (Misliya-1) or possibly even earlier at 210ka (Apidima 1), and a quite long existence of Homo sapiens in Africa (Jebel Irhoud, ~300ka). While the faces of these early Homo sapiens appear quite modern, the shape of the braincase seems to lack behind, reaching the modern state only around after 35ka. Here, new data and approaches were applied to the Manot 1 calvaria. The ecto- and endocranial shape analyses based on micro-computed tomography data and a landmark-semilandmark approach using multiple reconstructions of the incomplete calvaria confirm that Manot 1 is unequivocally modern human. Its endocranial shape is markedly different from the earliest known Homo sapiens and close to the Levantine Qafzeh/Skhul assemblage (120-90ka) as well as modern humans, but still shows some deviations from both groups. The absence of other Homo sapiens fossils in the Levant between the Qafzeh/Skhul and Manot populations is not supportive for the hypothesis of a continuous occupation or the local evolution of modern humans. It suggests that Manot 1 represents a population migrating out-of-Africa and reaching the Levantine corridor during warmer and wetter climatic conditions over the Northern Sahara and the Mediterranean. Manot 1 shows that both modern humans and Neanderthals (e.g. Kebara, Amud) contemporaneously inhabited the Levant during the Middle to Upper Paleolithic interface. The endocranial shape of Manot 1 might indicate that this population had not yet fully reached the brainshape of modern humans evident after 35ka.
KW - Early modern humans
KW - Hybridization
KW - Modern human migration
KW - Neanderthals
KW - Neurocranial shape
KW - Out-of-Africa
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85075331133&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.quaint.2019.10.009
DO - 10.1016/j.quaint.2019.10.009
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AN - SCOPUS:85075331133
SN - 1040-6182
VL - 551
SP - 29
EP - 39
JO - Quaternary International
JF - Quaternary International
ER -