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New evidence suggests populations of modern humans arrived in the Middle East some 42,000 years ago
Thursday, September 12, 2013 14:25
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University of Oxford researchers dated shells found at Ksar Akil, Lebanon to spark debate about where early early modern humans travelled from in their expansion towards Europe.
The scientists believe the earliest fully modern humans arrived in the Near East (now known as the Middle East) around 42,000-years-ago.
The team radiocarbon dated 20 marine shells from the top 15 metres of archaeological layers at the site north of Beirut. The shells were perforated, which indicates they were used as beads for body or clothes decoration by modern humans.
Beads from the site of Ksar Akil, Lebanon, found closely associated with the skeleton of an early modern girl dating to between 39,000 to 41,000 years ago. The beads (pictured) are made of shells of small marine snails as well as a Glycymeris shell in the centre, preserved with bright red pigmentation
Neanderthals, who were living in the same region before them, were not making such beads, according to the scientists.
