Jebel Irhoud

جبل إيغود

Morocco · Marrakesh-Safi

CaveUnknown
Approximate periodMiddle Pleistocene See on the map ↓

In brief

The excavated cave remains have yielded early Homo sapiens fossils alongside stone tools. Dating studies published in 2017 showed that the finds were more than approximately 300 thousand years old, changing debates about human origins.

What was found?

  • 1Early Homo sapiens skulls

    The skulls combine faces resembling those of present-day humans with a more elongated braincase. They are important for understanding that different features of human anatomy did not develop simultaneously.

  • 2Jaw and tooth remains

    The human remains also include jaws and teeth. The recalculated age of the Irhoud 3 jaw was found to agree with the date obtained from heated stones.

  • 3Levallois stone tools

    Pointed forms are common among the tools produced from prepared stone cores. They show that the fossils were found alongside African Middle Stone Age technology.

  • 4Heated flints

    Flints exposed to heat in the past were dated by thermoluminescence to approximately 300 thousand years ago. They were used to determine the age of the layers containing the fossils.

  • 5Bones of hunted animals

    The bones bear traces of hunting; gazelle is the most frequently represented animal. They provide direct evidence of human diet.

What does it point to?

The finds document the lives of early Homo sapiens in connection with stone tool production and hunting. According to researchers, the fossils support explaining the origins of our species through connected populations across broad regions of Africa.

What did it teach us?

  1. They showed that humans identified as Homo sapiens lived in North Africa approximately 300 thousand years ago.
  2. According to researchers, a facial shape resembling that of present-day humans appeared before the rounded braincase.
  3. Early Homo sapiens fossils and Levallois technology were documented in the same layers.

Images

Jebel Irhoud 1. Homo Sapiens
Ryan Somma from Occoquan, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Record

Culture
Early Homo sapiens; Levallois technology
First modern dig
1961
Team / historical
INSAP and Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology; Abdelouahed Ben-Ncer and Jean-Jacques Hublin
Coordinates
31.8550°, -8.8725°

Sources

  1. mpg.de
  2. humanorigins.si.edu
  3. en.wikipedia.org

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12.000

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