HAIFA: The discovery of part of an early human skull in Israel is shedding new light on the origins of man.
The 55,000-year-old skull is believed to have belonged to the oldest-known human species that is modern homo sapiens.
Simon Fraser University archeology professor Francesco Berna and his masters student Megan Thibodeau were involved in the find.
“What’s surprising is the combination of the skull having very modern traits, which are very similar to modern African populations and European populations, and the age — about 55,000 years,” Berna said. “To my knowledge, this is probably one of, if not the, oldest fossils that is so close to us.”
A paper published in Nature and co-authored by Berna documents the discovery of the skull at Manot Cave in Western Galilee, Israel. The discovery of the skull supports the hypothesis that our direct ancestors were originally from Africa, and not Europe.
“Being in Israel, in the Middle East between Africa and Europe, it supports the out-of-Africa model of modern human origin,” Berna said. “We came, in several waves, out of Africa into the Middle East, and into Europe and Asia. There’s strong fossil evidence of that.”
Other, even older, humanoid skulls have been discovered in the region, he says. “But they differ from this new skull that was found, and from us. They’re older and more primitive.”
Berna’s area of expertise is in site formation processes. He was able to help the Israeli team determine the geological processes involved in the formation of the site.
“At the beginning, I was telling them, ‘Okay, I think we should excavate here rather than there because that’s where we’re going to find stuff more (in position) and that is less re-worked.’”
