55,000 Year Old Modern Human Found in Pleistocene Quaternary Levant With Occiptal Bun

The discovery of a 55,000-year-old partial skull in Northern Israel provides new insights into the migration of modern humans out of Africa. The rare find is reported in the journal Nature this week by an international team of Israeli, North American and European researchers.

A key event in human evolution was the expansion of modern humans of African origin across Eurasia, replacing all other forms of hominin (humans and their predecessors), around 40,000-60,000 years ago. However, due to the scarcity of human fossils from this period, these ancestors of all present-day non-African modern populations have largely remained a mystery.

Now, researchers describe a partial skull that dates to around 55,000, which was found at Manot Cave in Israel's Western Galilee. The Manot Cave was discovered in 2008 during construction activities that damaged its roof. Rock falls and active stalagmites had apparently blocked the initial entrance to the cave for at least 15,000 years. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Cave Research Center conducted an initial survey of the cave and reported the findings of archaeological remains.

Prof. Israel Hershkovitz of Tel Aviv University led the anthropological study of the skull, and led the excavation together with archaeologists Dr. Ofer Marder of Ben-Gurion University, and Dr. Omry Barzilai of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The skull has a distinctive "bun"-shaped occipital region at the back. In this way its shape resembles modern African and European skulls, but differs from other anatomically modern humans from the Levant. This suggests that the Manot people could be closely related to the first modern humans that later colonized Europe.

The specimen also provides evidence that both modern humans and Neanderthals inhabited the southern Levant during the late Pleistocene, close in time to the likely interbreeding event between modern humans and Neanderthals.

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I actually have an occipital bun.  IIRC, my father did too.  However, my son appears not to.  Though, honestly, I wonder if its something which gets emphasized as men get older (I am given to understand the bun shows up in men more than women).  Once upon a time, Lyudmila exploring my skull, just tracing and feeling.  And, truth be told, it unnerved her a bit: not only do I have the bun and what I call the 'german brow,' I have a bony crest (very modest) at the top of my head. It seemed odd to her a bit: the men she'd dated before had very smooth feeling skulls, without the ridges and bun.    That fit with what I saw in Ukraine.  I've met Ukrainians and Russians before, but when I went to Kiev the first time, it struck me how differently men's heads were shaped.  At the time, I noticed the forehead and jaw.