Humans, neanderthals coexisted in the Negev desert 50,000 years ago
| Author | IDAN ZONSHINE |
| Published date | 15 June 2021 |
| Date | 15 June 2021 |
| Publication title | Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel) |
The study, which was published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences scientific journal, was led by researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Max Planck Society, Prof. Elisabetta Boaretto, together with Dr. Omry Barzilai of the Antiquities Authority (IAA).
"Boker Tachtit is the first site outside of Africa, which modern man penetrated on his way to the rest of the world, hence the importance of the site, as well as the importance of dating it accurately," Dr. Barzilai, director of excavation at the Boker Tachtit site on behalf of the IAA, said in a statement.
"The age of the site as dated in the study – 50,000 years – indicates that modern man existed in the area of the Negev at the same time as the Neanderthal man, who is known to have lived in it during this period," he said. "There is no doubt that the two species, who lived and roamed the Negev, were aware of each other's existence."
"Our research Boker Tachtit site places an important and unequivocal point of reference on the timeline of human evolution," he concluded.
According to the "recent African origin" theory, Homo sapiens originated in Africa as early as 270,000 years ago and at different times took either the northern route to Eurasia, passing through the Levant, or several possible southern routes to remote corners of Asia and even Oceania – reaching as far as Australia by land.
DNA research shows that the migration of modern human groups began from Africa to Asia and Europe, and from there to the rest of the world about 60,000 years ago, caused Neanderthals to disappear and assimilate into the modern human population.
During the Middle Paleolithic period (50,000-250,000 years ago), two different species of man lived in the world at the same time: Neanderthal man and modern man.
Neanderthal man lived in Europe and Central Asia, while modern man lived in Africa. The Middle East and Israel in particular were the distribution limits of these species, so they also contain remnants of the two populations at different time periods.
Boker Tachtit, which is located in the Wadi Zin basin in what today is known as the Ein Avdat National Park, is considered a key site for tracing this migration out of Africa.
It is considered a major site in the Levant for documenting an important period in humankind's prehistory: the...
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