Earliest modern humans in Eurasia : Evidence from the Near East

The human fossils recovered from Skhul and Qafzeh caves in Israel provide physical evidence of early anatomically modern humans in the Near East. These hominids, associated to Middle Paleolithic lithic assemblage and dated to more than 92 kyr BP, play a major role in the debate on the dispersal of modern humans at the crossroads of Africa and Eurasia. The Skhul-Qafzeh hominids exhibit, besides derived modern features, few primitive retentions and reflect intrapopulational variation in both cranial and postcranial skeletons. Furthermore the pattern of population change that these hominids document did not parallel that of Europe where the first modern humans were late and associated with Upper Paleolithic assemblages. Such considerations might be the cause of certain misconceptions concerning the phylogenetic interpretation of the Near Eastern specimens