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Levantine cranium from Manot Cave (Israel) foreshadows the first European modern humans

Nature volume 520, pages 216–219 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

A key event in human evolution is the expansion of modern humans of African origin across Eurasia between 60 and 40 thousand years (kyr) before present (bp), replacing all other forms of hominins1. Owing to the scarcity of human fossils from this period, these ancestors of all present-day non-African modern populations remain largely enigmatic. Here we describe a partial calvaria, recently discovered at Manot Cave (Western Galilee, Israel) and dated to 54.7 ± 5.5 kyr bp (arithmetic mean ± 2 standard deviations) by uranium–thorium dating, that sheds light on this crucial event. The overall shape and discrete morphological features of the Manot 1 calvaria demonstrate that this partial skull is unequivocally modern. It is similar in shape to recent African skulls as well as to European skulls from the Upper Palaeolithic period, but different from most other early anatomically modern humans in the Levant. This suggests that the Manot people could be closely related to the first modern humans who later successfully colonized Europe. Thus, the anatomical features used to support the ‘assimilation model’ in Europe might not have been inherited from European Neanderthals, but rather from earlier Levantine populations. Moreover, at present, Manot 1 is the only modern human specimen to provide evidence that during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic interface, both modern humans and Neanderthals contemporaneously inhabited the southern Levant, close in time to the likely interbreeding event with Neanderthals2,3.

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Figure 1: Geographical location of Manot Cave, Israel.
Figure 2: Various views of the Manot 1 calvaria.
Figure 3: Comparative morphometric analysis.

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Acknowledgements

The excavation at Manot Cave was initiated and supported throughout the years by the late D. David, founder of the ‘Dan David Prize’, and his son A. David. The ongoing research is financially supported by the Dan David Foundation, the Israel Antiquities Authority, Case Western Reserve University, the Leakey Foundation, the Irene Levi Sala CARE Archaeological Foundation, the Keren Kayemet L’Israel and the Israel Science Foundation. Radiocarbon dating research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Exilarch’s Foundation and the Max Planck Society–Weizman Institute Joint Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology. Geological research was supported by The Bertha and Louis Weinstein Research Fund. We thank other research members of the Manot team: J.-M. Tejero and S. Weiner. We thank A. Behar and L. Barda for their drawings, C. Amit for the photography of the skull, and V. Essman and Y. Shmidov for surveying and drafting the cave. We thank I. Mureinik for editorial assistance. Special thanks are due to the following students and scholars: L. Weissbrod, D. Stein, H. Cohen, B. Medlej, M. Feldman, O. Hay, T. Abulafia, L. Davis, N. Schneller-Pels, D. Yegorov, M. Ullman and G. Hertzelinger. Thanks are also due to the Maale Yossef Regional Council, the residents of modern Manot and N. Reuven. We are also grateful to the late S. Dorfman, U. Dahari, D. Barshad, E. Stern and J. Goldberg. We thank I. Gilead and O. Bar-Yosef for reading and commenting on a previous version of this paper. We are grateful to C. Stringer for comments and suggestions.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Viviane Slon

    Present address: Present address: Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103, Leipzig, Germany.,

  2. Israel Hershkovitz and Ofer Marder: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Dan David Laboratory for the Search and Study of Modern Humans, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, PO Box 39040, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel,

    Israel Hershkovitz & Viviane Slon

  2. The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History and National Research Center, Tel Aviv University, PO Box 39040, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel,

    Israel Hershkovitz, Daniella Bar-Yosef Mayer & Hila May

  3. Archaeology Division, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, PO Box 653, Beer-Sheva 8410501, Israel,

    Ofer Marder

  4. Geological Survey of Israel, 30 Malkhe Israel Street, Jerusalem 95501, Israel,

    Avner Ayalon, Miryam Bar-Matthews & Gal Yasur

  5. Max Planck Society-Weizmann Institute Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology, D-REAMS Radiocarbon Laboratory, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel,

    Elisabetta Boaretto, Valentina Caracuta & Bridget Alex

  6. Department of Anthropology and Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA,

    Bridget Alex

  7. Department of Geography, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91905, Israel,

    Amos Frumkin

  8. Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel,

    Mae Goder-Goldberger

  9. Department of Human Evolution, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103, Leipzig, Germany,

    Philipp Gunz

  10. Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, 10027, New York, USA

    Ralph L. Holloway

  11. Department of Anatomy, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, 44106, Ohio, USA

    Bruce Latimer

  12. Department of Orthodontics, Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA,

    Bruce Latimer & Mark G. Hans

  13. 8 Dan Street, Modi’in 7173161, Israel,

    Ron Lavi

  14. Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91904, Israel,

    Alan Matthews

  15. Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada,

    Francesco Berna

  16. Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel,

    Guy Bar-Oz & Reuven Yeshurun

  17. Department of Anatomy and Anthropology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, PO Box 39040, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel,

    Hila May

  18. Department of Anthropology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 12–14, A-1090 Vienna, Austria,

    Gerhard W. Weber

  19. The Core Facility for Micro-Computed Tomography, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 12–14, A-1090, Vienna, Austria,

    Gerhard W. Weber

  20. Israel Antiquities Authority, PO Box 586, Jerusalem 91004, Israel,

    Omry Barzilai

Authors
  1. Israel Hershkovitz
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  15. Alan Matthews
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Contributions

I.H., O.B. and O.M. are directing the Manot cave research project. I.H., P.G., B.L., V.S., G.W.W., H.M., M.G.H. and R.L.H. performed the various aspects of the anthropological study of the Manot 1 calvaria. O.B., O.M., R.L. and M.G.G. conducted the archaeological studies at the cave. A.A., M.B.-M., G.Y. and A.M. conducted the U–Th dating of the calcitic crust on the Manot 1 calvaria and of speleothems in the cave. A.F. and F.B. conducted the geological study of the cave. E.B., V.C. and B.A. performed the radiocarbon dating and charcoal analysis. G.B.-O., R.Y. and D.B.-Y.M. conducted the study of the faunal remains.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Israel Hershkovitz.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Figure 1 Plan of Manot Cave.

The excavation areas are shown. The upper photograph shows the chamber in which Manot 1 was found (yellow circle) (looking east). The lower photograph shows the stratigraphic profile of Area C (looking west). Note the eight different sedimentological units.

Extended Data Figure 2 Diagnostic flint and bone artefacts from Area C.

Upper Palaeolithic, a–k; Initial Upper Palaeolithic, l–n; Middle Palaeolithic, o. a, Aurignacian endscrapers. b, Carinated endscrapers. c, Nosed endscrapers. d, Curved–twisted bladelet. e, Antler spear points. f, Ahmarian blades. g, Ahmarian blade cores. h, Retouched blade. i, Endscraper on a blade. j, Burin on truncation on a blade. k, El-Wad points. l, Wide blade cores. m, Blades with faceted butts. n, Endscraper. o, Levallois points and flakes.

Extended Data Figure 3 Crust sampling for dating.

The outer (a) and inner (b) parts of the skull showing the locations of sampling for U–Th dating and the dating results. Ages are in thousands of years, errors are at 2σ.

Extended Data Figure 4 Dating results for Area C.

a, U–Th dates (white boxes) are of flowstone layers and the crust covering an archaeological artefact (sample 1029). Radiocarbon dates (yellow box) are of the archaeological accumulation between the flowstone layers of square M65. b, Dates of radiocarbon samples from Squares M65 and J65. Radiocarbon sample number, material type, 14C age ± 1σ, calibrated range for 68.2% and 95.4% confidence intervals, sample identity, percentage of carbon after pre-treatment and stable carbon isotopes ratio are given. Samples from square M65 are ordered according to absolute height above sea level.

Extended Data Figure 5 U–Th ages of stalagmites 1020, 1044, 1045 and 1048.

a-d, Photographs of the stalagmites, showing the position of the dated laminae. Ages are in thousands of years, errors are at 2σ. e, U–Th ages of the four stalagmites, plotted in stratigraphic sequence (open symbols, uncorrected ages; solid symbols, corrected ages). Grey and black bars indicate errors on uncorrected and corrected ages, respectively. f, 230Th/234U versus 232Th/234U isochron plots from eight different laminae, sampled from the four speleothems.

Extended Data Table 1 Correction factors
Full size table
Extended Data Table 2 Manot 1 calvaria morphology compared with an Upper Palaeolithic European specimen, Neanderthals and present-day humans
Full size table
Extended Data Table 3 Manot 1 calvaria measurements compared with other archaic and modern human groups
Full size table
Extended Data Table 4 Comparative data for the geometric morphometric analysis
Full size table

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

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Supplementary Table 1

This file contains detailed age determination results of flowstones, stalagmites and calcitic crusts. (XLSX 21 kb)

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Hershkovitz, I., Marder, O., Ayalon, A. et al. Levantine cranium from Manot Cave (Israel) foreshadows the first European modern humans. Nature 520, 216–219 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14134

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