A Jawbone Is the Oldest Modern-Human Fossil Outside of Africa
Discovered in an Israeli cave, the jaw confirms that humans ventured out of our birth continent at least 180,000 years ago.
Between 1929 and 1934, the legendary British archaeologist Dorothy Garrod excavated a series of caves and rock shelters on the slopes of Israel’s Mount Carmel. Within those caves, she uncovered a series of historically important hominid fossils. Some were Neanderthals. Others belonged to early modern humans—Homo sapiens. Among the latter, skeletons of 10 individuals from one cave, Skhul, turned out to be between 80,000 and 120,000 years old, making them among the oldest fossils of modern humans outside of Africa—the continent where we originated.
But another cave, Misliya, escaped Garrod’s attention. It had collapsed at least 160,000 years ago,
