Archaeologists Make Dramatic Discovery: A Prehistoric Human Type Previously Unknown to Science

Static Skull, Mandible, and Parietal Orthographic

Static skull, mandible, and parietal orthographic. Credit: Tel Aviv University

Dramatic Discovery in Israeli Excavation

  • The discovery of a new Homo group in this region, which resembles Pre-Neanderthal populations in Europe, challenges the prevailing hypothesis that Neanderthals originated from Europe, suggesting that at least some of the Neanderthals’ ancestors actually came from the Levant.
  • The new finding suggests that two types of Homo groups lived side by side in the Levant for more than 100,000 years (200-100,000 years ago), sharing knowledge and tool technologies: the Nesher Ramla people who lived in the region from around 400,000 years ago, and the Homo sapiens who arrived later, some 200,000 years ago.
  • The new discovery also gives clues about a mystery in human evolution: How did genes of Homo sapiens penetrate the Neanderthal population that had presumably lived in Europe long before the arrival of Homo sapiens?
  • The researchers claim that at least some of the later Homo fossils found previously in Israel, like those unearthed in the Skhul and Qafzeh caves, do not belong to archaic (early) Homo sapiens, but rather to groups of mixed Homo sapiens and Nesher Ramla lineage.

Nesher Ramla Homo type — a prehistoric human previously unknown to science.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have identified a new type of early human at the Nesher Ramla site, dated to 140,000 to 120,000 years ago. According to the researchers, the morphology of the Nesher Ramla humans shares features with both Neanderthals (especially the teeth and jaws) and archaic Homo (specifically the skull). At the same time, this type of Homo is very unlike modern humans — displaying a completely different skull structure, no chin, and very large teeth.

Following the study’s findings, researchers believe that the Nesher Ramla Homo type is the ‘source’ population from which most humans of the Middle Pleistocene developed. In addition, they suggest that this group is the so-called ‘missing’ population that mated with Homo sapiens who arrived in the region around 200,000 years ago — about whom we know from a recent study on fossils found in the Misliya cave.

Two teams of researchers took part in the dramatic discovery, published in the prestigious Science journal: an anthropology team from Tel Aviv University headed by Prof. Israel Hershkovitz, Dr. Hila May and Dr. Rachel Sarig from the Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Dan David Center for Human Evolution and Biohistory Research and the Shmunis Family Anthropology Institute, situated in the Steinhardt Museum at Tel Aviv University; and an archaeological team headed by Dr. Yossi Zaidner from the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Timeline: The Nesher Ramla Homo type was an ancestor of both the Neanderthals in Europe and the archaic Homo populations of Asia.

Prof. Israel Hershkovitz: “The discovery of a new type of Homo” is of great scientific importance. It enables us to make new sense of previously found human fossils, add another piece to the puzzle of human evolution, and understand the migrations of humans in the old world. Even though they lived so long ago, in the late middle Pleistocene (474,000-130,000 years ago), the Nesher Ramla people can tell us a fascinating tale, revealing a great deal about their descendants’ evolution and way of life.”

Fossil Remains of Skull and Jaw

Fossil remains of skull and jaw. Credit: Tel Aviv University

The important human fossil was found by Dr. Zaidner of the Hebrew University during salvage excavations at the Nesher Ramla prehistoric site, in the mining area of the Nesher cement plant (owned by Len Blavatnik) near the city of Ramla. Digging down about 8 meters, the excavators found large quantities of animal bones, including horses, fallow deer, and aurochs, as well as stone tools and human bones. An international team led by the researchers from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem identified the morphology of the bones as belonging to a new type of Homo, previously unknown to science. This is the first type of Homo to be defined in Israel, and according to common practice, it was named after the site where it was discovered — the Nesher Ramla Homo type.

Dr. Yossi Zaidner: “This is an extraordinary discovery. We had never imagined that alongside Homo sapiens, archaic Homo roamed the area so late in human history. The archaeological finds associated with human fossils show that “Nesher Ramla Homo” possessed advanced stone-tool production technologies and most likely interacted with the local Homo sapiens.” The culture, way of life, and behavior of the Nesher Ramla Homo are discussed in a companion paper also published in Science journal today (June 24, 2021).

Prof. Hershkovitz adds that the discovery of the Nesher Ramla Homo type challenges the prevailing hypothesis that the Neanderthals originated in Europe. “Before these new findings,” he says, “most researchers believed the Neanderthals to be a ‘European story’, in which small groups of Neanderthals were forced to migrate southwards to escape the spreading glaciers, with some arriving in the Land of Israel about 70,000 years ago. The Nesher Ramla fossils make us question this theory, suggesting that the ancestors of European Neanderthals lived in the Levant as early as 400,000 years ago, repeatedly migrating westward to Europe and eastward to Asia. In fact, our findings imply that the famous Neanderthals of Western Europe are only the remnants of a much larger population that lived here in the Levant — and not the other way around.”

Nesher Ramla Research Team

(Left to Right): Israel Hershkovitz, Marion Prevost, Hila May, Rachel Sarig and Yossi Zaidner. Credit: Tel Aviv University

According to Dr. Hila May, despite the absence of DNA in these fossils, the findings from Nesher Ramla offer a solution to a great mystery in the evolution of Homo: How did genes of Homo sapiens penetrate the Neanderthal population that presumably lived in Europe long before the arrival of Homo sapiens? Geneticists who studied the DNA of European Neanderthals have previously suggested the existence of a Neanderthal-like population which they called the ‘missing population’ or the ‘X population’ that had mated with Homo sapiens more than 200,000 years ago.

In the anthropological paper now published in Science, the researchers suggest that the Nesher Ramla Homo type might represent this population, heretofore missing from the record of human fossils. Moreover, the researchers propose that the humans from Nesher Ramla are not the only ones of their kind discovered in the region, and that some human fossils found previously in Israel, which have baffled anthropologists for years — like the fossils from the Tabun cave (160,000 years ago), Zuttiyeh cave (250,000), and Qesem cave (400,000) — belong to the same new human group now called the Nesher Ramla Homo type.

“People think in paradigms,” says Dr. Rachel Sarig. “That’s why efforts have been made to ascribe these fossils to known human groups like Homo sapiens, Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, or the Neanderthals. But now we say: No. This is a group in itself, with distinct features and characteristics. At a later stage small groups of the Nesher Ramla Homo type migrated to Europe — where they evolved into the ‘classic’ Neanderthals that we are familiar with, and also to Asia, where they became archaic populations with Neanderthal-like features. As a crossroads between Africa, Europe, and Asia, the Land of Israel served as a melting pot where different human populations mixed with one another, to later spread throughout the Old World. The discovery from the Nesher Ramla site writes a new and fascinating chapter in the story of humankind.”

Prof. Gerhard Weber, an associate from Vienna University, argues that the story of Neanderthal evolution will be told differently after this discovery: “Europe was not the exclusive refugium of Neanderthals from where they occasionally diffused into West Asia. We think that there was much more lateral exchange in Eurasia, and that the Levant is geographically a crucial starting point, or at least bridgehead, for this process.”

Reference: “A Middle Pleistocene Homo from Nesher Ramla, Israel” by Israel Hershkovitz, Hila May, Rachel Sarig, Ariel Pokhojaev, Dominique Grimaud-Hervé, Emiliano Bruner, Cinzia Fornai, Rolf Quam, Juan Luis Arsuaga, Viktoria A. Krenn, Maria Martinón-Torres, José María Bermúdez de Castro, Laura Martín-Francés, Viviane Slon, Lou Albessard-Ball, Amélie Vialet, Tim Schüler, Giorgio Manzi, Antonio Profico, Fabio Di Vincenzo, Gerhard W. Weber and Yossi Zaidner, 25 June 2021, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.abh3169

58 Comments on "Archaeologists Make Dramatic Discovery: A Prehistoric Human Type Previously Unknown to Science"

  1. … Only the God knows what happened along the way to the Human kind…

  2. You mean scientists these days don’t know everything???!!!

  3. No, scientists don’t know everything, but to believe in revealed truth, i.e.religion, is to embrace ignorance.

  4. More bs for the dumbed down masses to ponder on.

  5. Nice fairytale.Man was created fully formed.No evolution needed.

  6. BlindFaithScienceBad | June 25, 2021 at 8:25 pm | Reply

    Why are all these anti science tards on this site commenting lmao. It’s like a Democrat listening to Rush Limbaugh just to be mad about it. Luckily they can’t anymore 🤣

    • Michael Wilson | June 26, 2021 at 11:39 am | Reply

      The fact that you make a joke about a man’s passing is horrible. It proves that you have no connection to humanity. You may possibly be a sociopath and are in need of some mental health evaluations. The loss of any human is tragic and should be mourned. Rush was a son a husband a human, the fact that you make folly of his passing proves only that you are subhuman.

  7. What god? Whose god? There has been a god of some sort or another since man invented them.

  8. Only man thinks the image of God is his. To be omnipotent is to carry many faces. Science and church has been a handhold agreement to God’s reasoning and his outcome…. and upon the lord of Israel did he bless unto young Solomon wisdom, for the lord was displeased of ignorance.

  9. Doug Christensen | June 26, 2021 at 6:43 am | Reply

    In the end, I believe we will find that true science and true religion will compliment each other.

    • And in the end it doesn’t really matter when the God AI Quantum computer is created, built, up and running, it’ll make all the decisions for human kind and the not so kind ones, 😆 lol 😂

  10. Interesting that all you scientist or religious people are refusing to see that quantum physics has proved that religion is right we are all one.

  11. “The word of man is flawed” -the bible: written, re-written, re-interpreted, and translated by MAN. “But god indpired those changes” really? So, the word of God was wrong, but now it’s been updated by those men who tell us they were inspired by god. Yes, they couldn’t possibly lie about that. NOW the Bible is correct. Not the original version, which was 100% oral for over 100 years. The message, though it has changed many times is always correct.

  12. Genesis 1:26, “Then God said: “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness…vs 27 And God went on to create man the man in his image, in God’s image he created him; ale and female he created them.

  13. I couldn’t help it, you killed it with the Rush comment! Well played!

    • Michael Wilson | June 26, 2021 at 11:43 am | Reply

      To make folly of a man’s passing is horrible. It proves that you yourself are subhuman. The loss of life is tragic, shame on you and your parents for having raised such a subhuman sociopath. You need mental help.

  14. What did they find? 2 fragments and they can determine all this based on those fragments.

    Also remember wrong assumptions lead to wrong conclusions. Facts please.

    We create gods like ourselves no human is even capable of thinking up a God like the one true living creator of all things. That is why he had to tell us about him.

  15. Gabriel Atkins | June 26, 2021 at 9:59 am | Reply

    It’s amazing to me to see people who fully believe that everything just happened. Also refuse to see the evidence of creative design. Chances of universe just came to be from nothing is like drop airplane parts in a tornado and it coming out fully assembled.

  16. Why is it scientists usually only find parts and pieces of “human” ancestors and then extrapolate to say they were “pre-human”? These are nothing more than dead gorilla bones. Evolution only happens in artistic renderings and cartoons.

  17. Bs science bet it’s another monkey or ape

    • We are apes, dude. Intelligent apes who are squandering their potential by denying science and hanging on to stone age fairy tales.

  18. Why do we have to argue? If you want to believe that you came from a monkey go ahead if that makes you ok with your life. If you choose to do so do not mock another for believing in God.We will all find out one day if you want to take the stance to not believe then you are the one who will end up in a terrible eternity. At least if I am wrong I have nothing to lose,but if I am right I get to spend my life with hopes, dreams, faith and comfort knowing I am part of something much bigger and better than my own selfish desires as well as leaving the world a better place.

    • Can you really even say that you have faith in your God when your argument is “At least if I am wrong I have nothing to lose. “I personally believe we’re connected to all the universe therefore we are all gods and goddesses. At the same time we are nothing. Furthermore, I also believe that there must have been divine intervention, humans and all we know is too elaborate and beautifully designed to be chalked up to mere chance. And by arguing about our origins is silly because anything someone believes to be true, it is.

  19. The Anunnaki created human beings in their image.

  20. These scientists need to read the apocrypha. All anomalies are clearly explained in the removed scriptures-removed from our bibles in the late 1800s. About same time these people started dishing out this fantasy of evolution. When the fallen angels came down and mated with women they bore “monsters” and no two of them were alike. Then these monsters interbred and made the giants. And the naphaliym slew the Nephil, and the Nephil slew the Enjo, and the Enjo slew mankind. And they sinned against birds and beasts, and reptiles until all of creation was corrupted. But Noah was perfect in all his generations so God saved him from the flood that was made to destroy the seed of the watchers in the earth. Pretty simple. And it was approximately 5000 years ago. The reasons the bones test old? Because angels are eternal, and these creatures are half angel.

  21. Well as an atheist and a classic liberal I can tell you that all these science papers coming out at such a fast pace these days all smell like BS to me.
    This group of peool found fossils of a jaw and a piece of skull and have created an entire fantasy world around them, a “revealed truth’s that all you “pro-science” people just blindly believe and have absolutely no chance of independently verifying before you do.
    Half of you now think what you read here is true and historical fact yet there is no way to verify it. Blind faith much.
    Did you know 2/3rd of all results from peer reviewed science experiments can not be recreated by the peers? Lol.
    I’m not anti-science. I’m just anti-idiot. Most “pro-science” idiots are actually just religious zealots if a different creed.
    Enjoy.

  22. Look, every intellectual knows that science isn’t perfect, it’s how we get to the FACTS. And we also realize, anyone who believes in ANY religion has some disconnect with their intellect, and isn’t worth your time if your trying to actually have an educated conversation. Sorry religious folk, but you believe in that which isn’t real. You have very little credibility at that point!!!!

  23. Edison Burjan | June 26, 2021 at 2:50 pm | Reply

    So if 10 modern humans were left on a planet with nothing, naked and they came in contact with nederlander type of woman would they mate with them I say they would and change the future people completely.

  24. Such anger !?
    Chill

  25. No gods. Just science. Science can make proofs and theories based on facts. Religion was created by man to control the week and protect them from knowing there is no afterlife. As for this find, it will go through rigorous examination for years before the scientific community accepts their findings.

    • Why is the topic of religion even worth discussing, it’s a complete waste of time. The unfortunate part is that 90 percent of the world, remains locked in the illusion of a God, they will never see the truth, because the brainwashing process has been in operation since the beginning of the first modern humans that it has become encoded into the human DNA. I do however find people’s blind devotion in religion amusing but at the same time very disturbing. The unfortunate truth is THERE IS NO GOD, NO HEAVEN, NO HELL… However I do believe that whatever molecules (or essence) that remains after you die just gets recycled again in the universe and that you never truly really die because part of you will always remain even on a microscopic level… Majority of Mankind will continue to try and give their life meaning or purpose through religion, because they refuse to accept the truth… That we have no purpose, we are not special and that unless we’ve discovered the secret to immortality, death is currently every single human beings final chapter, with absolutely nothing thereafter.

  26. There is no God, no heaven, no hell. When you die it’s over. That is the unfortunate fate of all mankind on this planet… We are not special, nor do we miraculously have some higher purpose after death. Unfortunately when ur dead you are dead….

  27. To believe any outcome is illogical. The absence of a thing does not prove another, I’m not religious at all, never in my whole life having grown up in a household that didn’t believe in choosing our religion, but letting us choose, but never getting around to it.
    However, I’ve not missed it in my life and growing up, thought those that were happy to go were nuts, and to believe in something without 🦚 proven. Unless you have proof against that this god thing is false; shut the f-ck up! Neither one of you are right, but if longevity is a one of the proofs the it is so..I guess..who the jumping jebus really knows, so don’t include me in your beliefs as well. Unless you can provide me with a DNA test to say so…that’s one of my proofs and it’s non debatable.
    At least you can prove your delusions. Just find the DNA of god, and prove he is god to begin with, then I’m there, I’ll die for this god if proof is able to be real and this proof is joined (I’m there, just find a way to, in fact, (consider made in Hong Kong to be not a truth) sry, could not help it. I’m tired, good night all!

  28. Gabe Stroesner | June 27, 2021 at 5:00 am | Reply

    The universe is just too big and diverse to have been mysteriously created by one god out of nothing.

    • The universe is just too big and diverse to have been mysteriously created out of nothing by sheer happenstance.

      Opposite statements, both used to defend whichever side one lands on and clings to with verve for validation a conclusion was the accurate one. It seems to work either way which I guess means it also doesn’t work.

      The things we know are really just the things we think we know.

  29. Anti science folk on the SciTechDaily site? Haven’t you got something more important to be doing with your time?

  30. I’m horrified that Black(African descended)people are now mating with the descendants of these non-human things.

  31. Genesis is the book of our genes, how our devine genes came about ; God is not a person . God means: “Genes of divinity”

  32. Siegfried Sam | June 28, 2021 at 2:07 am | Reply

    For now we see in part…pieces of a dream

  33. William Castillo | June 28, 2021 at 3:54 am | Reply

    As to God, I was 5 when I saw Him. 40 when I saw Jesus Christ. Sadly, the reinterpretations of the Bible are corruptions. There were many races of man before God created man a 7th line in His image and likeness. There is an afterlife and afterdeath. Quibbling about origins makes you neglect the urgent issues of the present, witch are spiralling down to global disaster, unless mankind can finally unite. Time will tell.

  34. William Castillo | June 28, 2021 at 3:56 am | Reply

    Which not witch

  35. … another dot is added to the graph, and genetics didn’t get that dot existing. Moreover, the dragon man, too…

  36. People here say that Science explains everything. Science cannot explain 60% of the stuff mankind has found. Remember too that Science is a man made invention. Sure it can describe stuff but its made by man, it is not perfect. If you have something against religion, then just be upfront with it, but don’t be blurting out poorly educated claims. To this day Scientists do not even know what exactly caused the bigbang. Don’t give me the: “friction or molecular energy”. Because even if that was the case, how does your “Science” explain the perfect conditions for life? If Earth was a centimeter farher or closer to the sun, If it spun too fast or too slow, life would not be possible. Evolution is a BS greater than a flat Earth. For those of you calling religious people “ignorant” I suggest you curb your “intellect”, saying stuff like that makes you as ignorant as anyone else. Guys, the brain was made for a reason. Please use it

  37. JOHN PETER SORG | June 28, 2021 at 7:14 pm | Reply

    I find it fascinating that supposedly these folks can extrapolate a skull’s construct by a couple of small pieces! Really, it’s a guess at best! And closer to a fantasy in someone’s science fiction type thought process rather than reality! And, by the way, who’s to say that whatever they found was not a deformity on the individual who these pieces of skull actually belong to? Even if you could possibly extrapolate that construct, how would they know that it was not a one-off deformity?

  38. Ah,
    True science = Discovery, knowledge.
    True religion = The root of all evil.
    Fin.

  39. Tony E St Clair | June 30, 2021 at 9:53 am | Reply

    2 bits of bone, does not a skeleton make.

  40. Who’s to say whose right or wrong …everyone has their own opinion and of course they’re wrong in my opinion (by the way mine is the correct one..says everyone)..the subject of religion is a personal one as is the subject of science…scientists at work on presumstion and where the facts lead….religion works on the premise of mine is the only true religion and every other one is wrong ….so when making statements about either subject do it with an open mind..human being’s are fallible and not perfect…and before you judge others make damned sure that you are perfect and you haven’t made any mistakes…..

  41. Lmaoooo what are all these religious people even doing in the comments of this article? Imagine this level of having no life. It’s like if atheists started frequenting religious sites just to tell them they disagree… ridiculous.

  42. God’s were Aliens back in the day. They came to earth to help educate and guide humanity. Humans twisted the truth to suit their agenda which was used to manipulate and control. Religion, as it is now, is the biggest lot of sh*t going with all the religions arguing that theirs is the best. The truth is out there. If you 2ant to close your mind to it because of your bullsh*t fake religion then so be it but don’t try and make others feel stupid for believing the truth! #f*ckreligion

  43. God was created in man’s own image.

  44. What if MAN as referred to in Genesis isn’t us?

    Adam and Eve are considered the first, (ignoring Lilleth) their sons and daughters next.

    Cain slew Abel out of jealousy over Abel marrying one of their sisters. One of a set of twins.

    His punishment from god was to be exiled from the mountain and ordered to go live in the village in the valley below.

    Where does a village come from if they are the first people?

    So I suggest perhaps evolution happened as “evidenced” by the preexisting village as described in genesis.

    And that creation perhaps also occurred. As we now know that it is entirely possible and factual to manipulate DNA to gain a desired result, and to clone living animals from the DNA of others. Living or dead.

    As to who did the cloning remains in question, but written historical evidence points to a species called Ananahki.

    Not god or gods, but scientific advanced.

    My question is, who created them? Or, where did they evolve?

    Where are they now? Still here? Wiped out? By whom? Themselves? The flood?

    People get so fired up about protecting their belief system when its called into question.

    What you believe does not define what you are. Not even who you are.

    The very honest brutal truth is that no one knows either way. To answer the question with any other reply than, “I don’t know”, is pretty much just lying to protect your idea of self. Its ego.

    Its ok to be mistaken. Its ok to accept new information. Its essential to scrutinize it for truth.

    There is usually some underlying truth in myth.

    Use it as a compass to guide you to truth.

    Stop hating on each other and look towards another’s belief system as a piece of the puzzle leading to the big picture.

    You act like soccer fans. So competitive! When none of you are actually playing the game. Just sitting in the stands. Needing something in life to make you right and them wrong. You more and them less. You the winner and them the loser.

    What if both sides stood together? All win.

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