This is a list of Neanderthal fossils .
Remains of more than 300 European Neanderthals have been found. This is a list of the most notable.
Name | Age | Cranial capacity (cm3) | Year discovered | Country | Discovered by | Now located at | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ehringsdorf skull | 150k–120k | 1450 [1] | 1908–1925 | Germany | Archäologischen Landesmuseums Thüringen | ||
Engis 2 | Undated | ? (child) | 1829 | Belgium | Philippe-Charles Schmerling | University of Liège | |
Gibraltar 1 | 40k | 1200 [1] | 1848 | Gibraltar | Edmund Flint | Natural History Museum, London | |
Gibraltar 2 | Undated | ? (child) | 1926 | Gibraltar | Dorothy Garrod | Natural History Museum, London | |
Krijn | 100-40 ka | (Not a full skull) | 2001 | Netherlands | Luc Anthonis | Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden | |
La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1 | 60k | 1600 [1] | 1908 | France | L. Bardon, A. Bouyssonie and J. Bouyssonie | ||
La Ferrassie 1 | 70k–50k | 1641 [1] | 1909 | France | Louis Capitan and Denis Peyrony | Musée de l'Homme | |
Neanderthal 1 | 40k | 1452 [1] | 1856 | Germany | Kleine Feldhofer Grotte | Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn | |
Saccopastore 1 | 250k | 1200 [2] | 1929 | Italy | |||
Saccopastore 2 | 250k | 1300 [3] | 1935 | Italy | Alberto Blanc and Henri Breuil | ||
Altamura Man | 170k | 1993 | Italy |
As of 2017, this list of Southwest Asian Neanderthals may be considered essentially complete.
Present-day country (country of discovery) | Site | Principal Neanderthal finds | MNI | Geological age (ka) | Descriptions | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Turkey | Karain | Four teeth | 1 | — | Senyürek (1949) [4] [5] | |
Lebanon | Ksâr 'Akil | K2: Teeth and partial maxilla | 1 | — | Ewing (1963) [7] | Ewing lost this specimen while transferring Ksar Akil material from Boston College to Fordham University. [8] |
Lebanon | El Masloukh | Upper second molar [9] | (1) | — | ? | Neanderthal attribution is stratigraphic, not morphological. [10] |
Israel | Kebara | KMH1: 7-9 mo. old partial skel. KMH2 : Post-cranial adult ♂ Various fragments KMH3: Milk tooth (m1-r) [11] | 21 + (10) | 64-59 [14] [15] | KMH1: Smith et al. (1977) [16] KMH2: Arensburg et al. (1985) [17] | Neanderthal attribution uncertain in KMH18-23, 25, 29, and 31 [11] [13] |
West Bank (Mandatory Palestine) | Shuqba | S-D1: Tooth and cranial frags. [9] | 1 | — | Keith (1931) [18] | |
Israel (Mandatory Palestine) | Tabun | T C1: Nearly complete adult ♀ T C2: Toothed mandible missing I1 (♂) Various fragments T E1: Right femur shaft (♂?) | 15 | ≈170-90 | McCown (1936) McCown and Keith (1939) | T C1: Neanderthal attribution is not universally accepted. [22] As of 1975, the whereabouts of T BC2, B3, and BC6 are unknown. [9] : 146 |
Israel | Ein Qashish | (EQH-2: Third molar) EQH-3: Adult lower limbs | 1 + (1) [23] | 70-60 [23] | Been et al. (2017) [23] | Discovered in 2013, these were the first diagnostically Neanderthal remains in Southwest Asia not found in a cave. [23] EQH-2: 70% posterior probability that Neanderthal attribution is correct. [23] |
Israel | Shovakh | (Tooth, M(3)-l [24] [Note 1] ) | (1) | — | S. Binford (1966) [25] | "[A]lthough within archaic and modern human ranges of variation, this complex occlusal morphology may suggest that it is more likely to have derived from a Neandertal than an early modern human". (Trinkaus 1987) [24] |
Israel | Amud | A1 : Adult full skeleton ♂ A2: Maxillary fragment A7: 10-mo.-old partial skel. | 3 [Note 2] [26] | 61-53 [26] | A1: Suzuki et al. (1970) [27] A7: Rak et al. (1994) [28] | |
Syria | Dederiyeh | D1: 19-30-month-old full skel. D2: 21-30-month-old full skel. | 17 | — | D1: Akazawa et al. (1993) [29] D2: Akazawa et al. (1999) [30] | |
Iraq | Shanidar | S1: Adult partial skel. ♂ S2: Adult crushed skel. ♂ | 10 | S2, S4: > 100 Others: 60 | S1: Stewart (1959) [31] S2: Stewart (1961) [32] | Shanidar 2 and 4 are sometimes not treated as Neanderthals. All but Shanidar 3 and 10 (and fragments of 5 excavated in 2015-2016) [36] may have been destroyed in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. [40] |
Iran | Bawa Yawan | Lower left deciduous canine | 1 | ~43,600-~41,500 years ago [41] | Heydari-Guran et al (2021) [41] | |
Iran | Wezmeh | maxillary right premolar tooth | 1 | 70-40 [42] | Zanolli et al. (2019) [42] | |
Iran | Bisitun | Adult radius shaft | 1 | — | Trinkaus and Biglari (2006) [43] | |
Total | 71 + (13) |
Central Asian Neanderthals were found in Uzbekistan and North Asian Neanderthals in Asian Russia.
Country | Site | Principal Neanderthal finds | MNI | Geological age (ka) | Initial descriptions | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Uzbekistan | Teshik-Tash | 8-11-yr-old skeleton | 1 | — | Okladnikov (1949) | |
Uzbekistan | Obi-Rakhmat | Subadult skull frag. and teeth | 1 | 74 [44] | Glantz et al. (2008) [45] | |
Asian Russia | Chagyrskaya | Partial mandible | 1 | — | (Announced in Viola 2012) | |
Asian Russia | Okladnikov | Sub-adult humerus and femur | 1 | (Announced in Krause et al. 2007) [46] | mtDNA sampled | |
Asian Russia | Denisova | Altai 1: Toe phalanx♀ D11: Bone fragment | 2 | — | Mednikova (2011) Brown, et al. (2016) [47] | Altai 1: Full genome sequenced [48] D11: mtDNA sampled |
Total | 6 |
Shanidar Cave is an archaeological site on Bradost Mountain, within the Zagros Mountains in the Erbil Governorate of Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq. Neanderthal remains were discovered here in 1953, including Shanidar 1, who survived several injuries, possibly due to care from others in his group, and Shanidar 4, the famed 'flower burial'. Until this discovery, Cro-Magnons, the earliest known H. sapiens in Europe, were the only individuals known for purposeful, ritualistic burials.
Kebara Cave is a limestone cave locality in Wadi Kebara, situated at 60 to 65 m above sea level on the western escarpment of the Carmel Range, in the Ramat HaNadiv preserve of Zichron Yaakov.
The Tabun Cave is an excavated site located at Nahal Me'arot Nature Reserve, Israel and is one of the Human Evolution sites at Mount Carmel, which were proclaimed as having universal value by UNESCO in 2012.
La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1 is an almost-complete male Neanderthal skeleton discovered in La Chapelle-aux-Saints, France by A. and J. Bouyssonie, and L. Bardon in 1908. The individual was about 40 years of age at the time of his death. He was in bad health, having lost most of his teeth and suffering from bone resorption in the mandible and advanced arthritis.
Baruch Arensburg, professor of Anatomy, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University (emeritus), is a physical anthropologist whose main field of study has been prehistoric and historic populations of the Levant.
Bisitun Cave is an archaeological site of prehistoric human habitation in the Zagros Mountains in the Kermanshah province, north-west Iran. Bisitun Cave is one of five caves situated at the base of The Rock of Bisitun, a 1,300 m (4,300 ft) high cliff within the Chamchamal Plain. It was first excavated in 1949 by Carlton Coon, and is notable for the discovery of Mousterian stone tools of the Middle Paleolithic, as well as the remains of 109 identifiable species of Pleistocene mammals, and hominid remains. Harold Dibble described the stone tools as having strong Levallois components. All artefacts are apparently from the same period.
Neanderthals are an extinct group of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. The type specimen, Neanderthal 1, was found in 1856 in the Neander Valley in present-day Germany.
The Skhul and Qafzeh hominins or Qafzeh–Skhul early modern humans are hominin fossils discovered in Es-Skhul and Qafzeh caves in Israel. They are today classified as Homo sapiens, among the earliest of their species in Eurasia. Skhul Cave is on the slopes of Mount Carmel; Qafzeh Cave is a rockshelter near Nazareth in Lower Galilee.
Neanderthal anatomy differed from modern humans in that they had a more robust build and distinctive morphological features, especially on the cranium, which gradually accumulated more derived aspects, particularly in certain isolated geographic regions. This robust build was an effective adaptation for Neanderthals, as they lived in the cold environments of Europe. In which they also had to operate in Europe's dense forest landscape that was extremely different from the environments of the African grassland plains that Homo sapiens adapted to with a different anatomical build.
Almost everything about Neanderthal behaviour remains controversial. From their physiology, Neanderthals are presumed to have been omnivores, but animal protein formed the majority of their dietary protein, showing them to have been carnivorous apex predators and not scavengers. Although very little is known of their social organization, it appears patrilines would make up the nucleus of the tribe, and women would seek out partners in neighbouring tribes once reaching adolescence, presumably to avoid inbreeding. An analysis based on finger-length ratios suggests that Neanderthals were more sexually competitive and promiscuous than modern-day humans.
Mugharet el-Zuttiyeh is a prehistoric archaeological site in Upper Galilee, Israel. It is situated 800 m (2,600 ft) from the Nahal Amud outlet, approximately 30 m (98 ft) above the wadi bed. It was found to house a fossil today known as the "Galilee skull" or "The Yabrudian Man".
Southwest Asian Neanderthals were Neanderthals who lived in Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Palestine, Iraq, and Iran - the southernmost expanse of the known Neanderthal range. Although their arrival in Asia is not well-dated, early Neanderthals occupied the region apparently until about 100,000 years ago. At this time, Homo sapiens immigrants seem to have replaced them in one of the first anatomically-modern expansions out of Africa. In their turn, starting around 80,000 years ago, Neanderthals seem to have returned and replaced Homo sapiens in Southwest Asia. They inhabited the region until about 55,000 years ago.
Amud 1 is a nearly complete but poorly preserved adult Southwest Asian Neanderthal skeleton thought to be about 55,000 years old. It was discovered at Amud in Israel by Hisashi Suzuki in July 1961, who described it as male. With an estimated height of 1.78 m, it is considerably taller than any other known Neanderthal, and its skull has by far the largest cranial capacity of any human skull in the fossil record. According to Ralph Holloway, this makes it one of the most famous Neanderthal specimens.
Kebara 2 is a 60,000 year-old Levantine Neanderthal mid-body male skeleton. It was discovered in 1983 by Ofer Bar-Yosef, Baruch Arensburg, and Bernard Vandermeersch in a Mousterian layer of Kebara Cave, Israel. To the excavators, its disposition suggested it had been deliberately buried, though like every other putative Middle Palaeolithic intentional burial, this has been questioned.
Le Regourdou is an archaeological site in the Dordogne department, France, on top of a hill just 800 m (2,600 ft) from the famous cave complex of Lascaux. At this now collapsed 35 m (115 ft) deep ancient karst cavity remarkably well preserved Neanderthal fossils were recovered, that might be skeletal remains of deliberate burials. According to the current excavation team at the site, the correct name of the location is "Regourdou". "Le Régourdou" is considered a misnomer and should be avoided.
Qafzeh Cave, also known by other names, is a prehistoric archaeological site located at the bottom of Mount Precipice in the Jezreel Valley of Lower Galilee south of Nazareth. Important remains of prehistoric people were discovered on the site - some of the oldest examples in the world, outside of Africa, of virtually anatomically modern human beings. These were discovered on the ledge just outside the cave, where 18 layers from the Middle Paleolithic era were identified. The interior of the cave contains layers ranging from the Neolithic era to the Bronze Age.
Misliya Cave, also known as the "Brotzen Cave" after Fritz Brotzen, who first described it in 1927, is a collapsed cave at Mount Carmel, Israel, containing archaeological layers from the Lower Paleolithic and Middle Paleolithic periods. The site is significant in paleoanthropology for the discovery of what were from 2018 to 2019 considered to be the earliest known remains attributed to Homo sapiens outside Africa, dated to 185,000 years ago. Since the time of its discovery in 2011, Jebel Faya, in the United Arab Emirates, had been considered to be the oldest settlement of anatomically-modern humans outside Africa, with its deepest assemblage being dated to 125,000 years ago.
Apidima Cave is a complex of five caves four small caves located on the western shore of Mani Peninsula in Southern Greece. A systematic investigation of the cave has yielded Neanderthal and Homo sapiens fossils from the Palaeolithic era.
Anna Belfer-Cohen is an Israeli archaeologist and paleoanthropologist and Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Belfer-Cohen excavated and studied many important prehistoric sites in Israel including Hayonim and Kebara Caves and open-air sites such as Nahal Ein Gev I and Nahal Neqarot. She has also worked for many years in the Republic of Georgia, where she made important contributions to the study of the Paleolithic sequence of the Caucasus following her work at the cave sites of Dzoudzuana, Kotias and Satsrublia. She is a specialist in biological Anthropology, prehistoric art, lithic technology, the Upper Paleolithic and modern humans, the Natufian-Neolithic interface and the transition to village life.