The first Neanderthal remains from an open-air Middle Palaeolithic site in the Levant

Ella Been,Gregorio Oxilia,Reuven Yeshurun,Stefano Benazzi,Michalle Soudack,Ravid Ekshtain,Noam Greenbaum,Yoel Rak,Erella Hovers,Nuha Agha,Jean‐Jacques Hublin ,Naomi Porat,Netta Mitki,Ruth Shahack‐Gross ,Daniella E Bar-Yosef Mayer,Joel Roskin,Lihi Levin,Nadav Nir,Alon Barash,Ariel Malinski-Buller,Mareike Cordula Stahlschmidt ,Omry Barzilai

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-03025-z

Abstract

The late Middle Palaeolithic (MP) settlement patterns in the Levant included the repeated use of caves and open landscape sites. The fossil record shows that two types of hominins occupied the region during this period—Neandertals and Homo sapiens. Until recently, diagnostic fossil remains were found only at cave sites. Because the two populations in this region left similar material cultural remains, it was impossible to attribute any open-air site to either species. In this study, we present newly discovered fossil remains from intact archaeological layers of the open-air site ‘Ein Qashish, in northern Israel. The hominin remains represent three individuals: EQH1, a nondiagnostic skull fragment; EQH2, an upper right third molar (RM3); and EQH3, lower limb bones of a young Neandertal male. EQH2 and EQH3 constitute the first diagnostic anatomical remains of Neandertals at an open-air site in the Levant. The optically stimulated luminescence ages suggest that Neandertals repeatedly visited ‘Ein Qashish between 70 and 60 ka. The discovery of Neandertals at open-air sites during the late MP reinforces the view that Neandertals were a resilient population in the Levant shortly before Upper Palaeolithic Homo sapiens populated the region.

Highlights

The late Middle Palaeolithic (MP) settlement patterns in the Levant included the repeated use of caves and open landscape sites
The fossils EQH2 and EQH3 derive from two distinct stratigraphic horizons, and their associated optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages suggest that the open-air site of ‘Ein Qashish was used repeatedly by Neandertals from 70 to 60 ka, a period contemporary with the occupation of the Kebara and Amud Caves
The discovery of diagnostic Neandertal remains at the open-air site of ‘Ein Qashish is unusual for the Levant and for Europe, where only two sites, both of which are earlier, have yielded such diagnostic fossils: the French Tourvillel a Rivière and Biache Saint Vaast 2 sites, both dated to marine isotope stage 748, 49

Summary

Discussion

The absolute dating of contexts associated with the Neandertal fossils from Tabun, Dederiyeh, Kebara, and Amud Caves suggests that Neandertals occupied the southern Levant between ca. 80 and ca. 55 ka[3, 6, 10, 12, 13, 45]. The fossils EQH2 and EQH3 derive from two distinct stratigraphic horizons, and their associated OSL ages suggest that the open-air site of ‘Ein Qashish was used repeatedly by Neandertals from 70 to 60 ka, a period contemporary with the occupation of the Kebara and Amud Caves. The identification of EQH2 and EQH3 enables us, for the first time, to confidently attribute to Neandertals a set of assemblages from an open-air site in the southern Levant This discovery in the flat topography of the palaeo-Qishon flood plain demonstrates that locomotor traits did not necessarily constrain Neandertals from exploiting landscapes other than the rugged mountainous terrain Combined with the dates of the Kebara and Amud Neandertals, the repeated occupation of ‘Ein Qashish in the open landscape during the Levantine late MP reinforces the view that despite possible early interbreeding events[17], Neandertals constituted a resilient population in the Mediterranean ecological zone of the southern Levant shortly before the region was populated by Upper Palaeolithic H. sapiens[12,13,14, 16, 21, 64]

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Additional Information