Scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science and archaeologists from the Antiquities Authority returned to the archaeological site of Boker Attama in the Negev, and shed new light on a defining chapter in human evolution
In the heart of the desert of the Negev stands the archeological site of Boker Bottom, which is a testimony to one of the most significant events in human history - the departure of modern man, Homo sapiens, from Africa and his spread throughout Asia and Europe. About 40 years after it was first revealed, a team of scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Max Planck Society, led by Prof. Elisabetta Boerto and in collaboration with dr Omri Barzilai and his team bIsrael Antiquities Authority, returned to the site with the aim of applying advanced methods of collecting and analyzing archaeological findings - such as flint tools and charcoal chips - and to settle a fundamental issue concerning the date of the arrival of modern man in our regions and his interactions with earlier cultures and human species - the Neanderthals. in research published today In the scientific journal "Records of the American Academy of Sciences" (PNAS), The scientists present a new chronological framework that delimits this significant chapter in human evolution, and points, among other things, to the side-by-side life of our ancestors and Neanderthal populations.
Man has left Africa more than once
In the time period known as the Middle Paleolithic, 50,000-250,000 years before our time, two human species lived in the old world at the same time: the Neanderthal man and the modern man. Neanderthal man lived in Europe and Central Asia, while modern man lived in Africa. The Middle East and Israel in particular were the limits of the distribution of these species, therefore they also contain remnants of the two populations in different periods of time.
DNA studies show that about 60 years ago, an extensive process of migration of modern human groups began from Africa to Asia and Europe, and from there to the rest of the world, a process that caused the disappearance of the Neanderthals and their assimilation into the modern human population. Therefore, the hypothesis in the study is that along migration axes, there was contact for short periods of time between the ancient populations and cultures, which also included the exchange of genes Confirms this hypothesis for the first time, and in fact proves that at least one of these intercultural encounters took place in the Negev 50 thousand years ago.
270 thousand years Homo sapiens
According to the "man's origin from Africa" theory, Homo sapiens first appeared in the Horn of Africa region 270 years ago, at the earliest, and from there he migrated on several occasions to the north - to today's Europe and Asia via the Levant, or south - on various routes that led him to remote corners of Asia and even to Australia . Boker Neta, located in the basin of Nahal Tzin in what is now the Ein Abdat Nature Reserve, is considered an important archaeological site for tracing this migration, as it is one of the few sites in the Levant that contains evidence of two different prehistoric periods - the Middle and Upper Paleolithic periods - and the transition between them. This transitional period is identified with technological developments in the field of the production and use of flint blades and the appearance of tools made from parts of bones and horns of wild animals.
The American archaeologist Anthony Marks, who in the early 14s headed the archeological excavation of Boker Neta, determined at the time, based on carbon-47 dating of a single find, that the site is about 34 thousand years old. However, this dating is now considered controversial as additional finds from the site were found to be in part quite "young" - about 10 thousand years old. "If we accept the dating presented to us by Marx, we will come to the conclusion that the transition period between the Middle and Upper Paleolithic periods lasted more than XNUMX years. However, findings from more northern sites - in Israel, Lebanon and even Turkey - indicate that the transition was much faster," explains Prof. Boerto, who heads a research laboratory specializing in advanced methods for archaeological dating, and adds: "Due to the technological limitations of the time, Marks was able to date a limited number of underground controlled finds. However, dating methods have come a long way since then, and today they are more sensitive and accurate than ever."
In order to settle this issue, Prof. Boarto, Dr. Barzilai and their multidisciplinary team used the most advanced methods to date the findings collected during the renewed excavations at the site in 2015-2013; among other things, the researchers used high-resolution carbon-14 dating of charcoal chips - evidence of an ancient hearth - Using the mass spectrometry accelerator named after Dangor at the Weizmann Institute, and using stimulated emission of light Optical (OSL) of quartz sand grains at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig In order to confirm the exact age of Lower Boker, the researchers also combined in their work a careful microarchaeological analysis of stone and sand deposits.
The last great migration event - 50 thousand years ago
"We are now able to say, with greater certainty, that the transition between the Middle and Upper Paleolithic periods was indeed a relatively quick event that began in the early morning about 50-49 years ago and ended about 44 years ago," Prof. Boarto points out. This dating creates a certain overlap between the transition period in the lower morning and the one that occurred in the forested Mediterranean region (Lebanon and present-day Turkey) 49-46 thousand years ago. However, Boker Neta remains the earliest site known to us associated with the transition period in the Levant. In addition, the new findings are evidence that this is the last migration event of modern man from North Africa.
According to the updated dating proposed by Prof. Boarto and Dr. Barzilai, there is an overlap between the transition period in the Lower Morning and the Middle Paleolithic culture in the region - that of the Neanderthals. "This is further proof that populations of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens lived side by side in the Negev, and apparently did not just mix with each other From a genetic point of view, as the theory of human origin from Africa holds, but also from a cultural point of view," The researchers conclude.
"Boker Ata'a is the first site outside of Africa to which modern man penetrated on his way to the whole world, and hence the importance of the site, as well as the importance of accuracy in its dating," says Dr. Amri Barzilai, the director of the excavation at the Boker Ata'a site on behalf of the Antiquities Authority. "The age of the site as indicated From the research - 50,000 years, indicates that modern man existed in the area of the Negev at the same time as Neanderthal man, who is known to have lived there during this period. There is no doubt that the two species, who lived and roamed the Negev, were aware of each other's existence. Our research at the Boker Neta site places an important and unequivocal point of reference on the timeline of human evolution."
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