Archaeologica.org

You never know what you will find!

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/07/oldest ... ion-clock/

‘Oldest remains’ outside Africa reset human migration clock

Two fossilised but badly damaged skulls unearthed in a Greek cave in the 1970s were identified as Neanderthal at the time.

In findings presented in the journal Nature, an international team of researchers used state-of-the art computer modelling and uranium dating to re-examine the two skulls.

One of them, named Apidima 2 after the cave in which the pair were found, proved to be 170,000 years old and did indeed belong to a Neanderthal.

But, to the shock of scientists, the skull named Apidima 1 pre-dated Apidima 2 by as much as 40,000 years, and was determined to be that of a Homo sapiens.

40,000 years apart and in the same cave?

kbs2244 wrote:40,000 years apart and in the same cave?

Is that somehow improbable? A good shelter, in a favorable area, would undoubtably show signs of occupation by any creature in need of shelter for as long as that shelter is accessible. Duh.

"It's not a well-behaved sample,"
Classic under statement

Those cave range from 4 to 26 M above sea level.
Earthquakes are not uncommon in the area.

In 40,000 years they have been flooded and otherwise disturbed how many times?

I have to agree with this guy:

Israel Hershkovitz, a paleoanthropologist at Tel Aviv University in Israel who found the fossils in Misliya Cave

But Hershkovitz isn't convinced Apidima 1 represents those ancient pioneers. Without more complete fossils and confirmation of their dates by other techniques, he says, "The evidence is very weak."

I smell headline hunting.