Abstract
Current research on Middle Paleolithic hominids from the Near East has directed attention toward possible behavioral/adaptive contrasts between the sympatric and possibly synchronic late archaic (Neandertal) and early modern (Qafzeh-Skhul) human lineages. These two paleontological samples contrast in their femoral neck-shaft angles, with the Qafzeh-Skhul sample having significantly higher neck-shaft angles, with a mean value (132·3°) which is closest to those of modern human urban and some agricultural samples. Given the developmental plasticity of this feature, in which elevated stress levels at the hip reduce the angle during development, this contrast implies lower levels of locomotor activity among the immature individuals of the Qafzeh-Skhul group than among the immature individuals of Near Eastern and other archaic human groups. In conjunction with the relatively high frequencies of commensal rodents at Qafzch, this implies primary site usage of longer duration and more organizational division of activity by age among the Near Eastern early modern humans than among Near Eastern Neandertals.
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