New Research on Old Skull Reveals Unknown Facts

Lately a new research study has taken place concerning a prehistoric, broken skull. The study is revealing many secrets of the ancient humans. It has depicted that the early modern humans had left Africa way before than it was previously known. This skull has been found in Eurasia. It dates back to 210,000 years. It is refered to as the oldest modern human bone that has been found so far outside Africa. Alongside, a 170,000-year-old, possibly a Neanderthal skull has also been found lying next to it in one of the caves in Southern Greece. Neanderthal skull is solid in nature and is about 40,000 years younger than the modern human skull. It is predicted that this particular human's early dispersal out of Africa failed. In the present day, there are no living descendants of this enigmatic human living. The study has made possible for all humans to trace their ancestry to the major dispersal out of Africa that happened between 70[,000] and 50,000 years before present. Other earlier modern human dispersals that have taken place outside of Africa have been documented at sites in Israel. At first, the two skulls were unearthed in the year 1970 at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Athens. These skulls were named as Apidima 1 and Apidima 2 because these were found in the Apidima Cave. Each of the skulls did not have a lower jaw. They were found lying side by side in a block of breccias, angular pieces of rock that were cemented together over time. None of the two skulls were in good condition. Apidima 1 had only back of the skull and the researchers were unsure of the species from which it has come. Apidima 2, preserved the facial region of the skull, and was identified as Neanderthal. It was also broken and not in shape. These skulls were preserved in the Museum for years and years. Later they were cleaned up and prepared the breccia block in the year 1990s and 2000s. In the present study, a new approach was taken. The skulls were put in a CT scanner. The scanner created 3D virtual reconstructions of each specimen. These were later subjected to analysis. In the next step, the researchers dated the skulls. Based on the previous analysis, it has been estimated that the skulls were roughly from the same time period, given that they were discovered next to each other, suggesting that they lived around the same time. Another method called uranium-series dating was used and it was found that the skulls didn’t belong to same time period.

By: Madhuchanda Saxena
Content: https://www.livescience.com/65906-oldest-modern-human-skull-eurasia.html