Zeravshan Valley, where Soii Havzak is located.
Soii Havzak contains artifacts and evidence of habitation spanning a period of 130,000 years. It will be on a “key route to human expansion” used by Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans, who coexisted and interacted there.
A 150,000-year-old rock shelter, recently discovered by archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem along a tributary of the Zeravshan River in Tajikistan, will be in a “key route to human expansion” used by Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans.
The place, known as Soii Havzakcontains artifacts and evidence of habitation spanning a period of 130,000 years, making it one of the few well-preserved archaeological sites in the Central Asian Mountain Corridor (IAMC).
The corridor is believed to have been a key migration route during the Stone Age. It linked different human species as they moved across Central Asia, but it remains largely unexplored despite its potential significance for understanding ancient human migrations and interactions.
The area may even have been a point of convergence where distinct human populations not only migrated, but also coexisted and interacted.
During recent excavations, archaeologists unearthed layers of stone tools, worked stones, blades and rock chips at Soii Havzak, along with animal bones and signs of the use of fire, such as burnt stones and charcoal.
These findings date back to around 150 thousand to 20 thousand yearswhich shows that the site was used repeatedly over millennia by different human groups, according to the study published November 4 in the journal Antiquity.
O Zeravshan voucherwhere Soii Havzak is located, has long-standing historical importance, later becoming an important commercial route connecting civilizations such as the Roman Empire and China.
The valley’s strategic position not only facilitated the spread of early Homo sapiens from Africa to Asia, but also linked diverse cultural and commercial networks across continents.
“We hope that ongoing research at this site will reveal new knowledge about how different human groups – such as modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans – may have interacted in this region,” said study first author Yossi Zaidner, senior lecturer at the University’s Institute of Archeology. Hebraica de Jerusalem, in a statement cited by : “our research aims to discover who the humans were who inhabited these parts of Central Asia and the nature of their interactions.”
