New study reveals that child buried in the oldest cemetery of which there are records was after all a hybrid between Neanderthal and Homo sapiens.
Just over 100,000 years ago, prehistoric human humans in the uprising began to bury their dead. Or was it before that?
Thus suggests a new analysis to the body of a child buried in the Skhul Cave, now Israel, about 140,000 years ago, in the oldest cemetery of which there are records.
At the time it was studied, this child was classified as belonging to a transition phase between the two strains.
However, not everyone is convinced that the Skhul child belongs to Homo Sapiens, especially due to similarities that some bones present with those of neanderthal children From France and Spain, explains the.
The new, published in the next number of the magazine Anthropology, describes the new analysis – scientists have now used computed tomography (CT scans) of neurochranium and jaw, and created the first 3D model of the Bone Labyrinth of the Internal Ear.
The researchers have found in this way that “while the general profile of the reconstructed cranial vault, in later view, corresponds to Homo sapiens, the jaw has a similar form of Neanderthals.” Thus, they conclude that “the combination of characteristics seen in the Skhul child may suggest that This child was a hybrid“.
“Therefore, unlike the predominant paradigm, The older known deadly practices involving burials cannot be attributed exclusively to Homo Sapiens To the detriment of Homo neanderthalensis, ”write the authors.
“The fact that Skhul’s child cannot be allocated to either Homo Sapiens or Homo Neanderthalensis, but to a young hybrid, contributes to the fundamental investigation in paleocognition dedicated to emotional behavior and the emergence of the symbolic mind,” they add.
