Skull discovery in Israeli cave suggests location where humans first started having sex with Neanderthals

AN ANCIENT skull found in a cave that was sealed off for 30,000 years reveals the likely location where humans first started having sex with Neanderthals.

Skull holds clue to Neanderthal sex

AN ANCIENT partial skull found in a cave in northern Israel gives clues to the likely location where humans first started having sex with Neanderthals, scientists say.

The 55,000-year-old partial skull, which has been described as an extraordinary find, was discovered in Manot Cave in western Galilee.

It gives clues to when our ancestors left their evolutionary cradle in Africa and passed through the Middle East on their way to Europe.

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Incredible discovery ... Professor Israel Hershkowitz shows the partial skull found in the cave in northern Israel. Picture: AFP

Manot is just a few dozen kilometres to the north and northwest of two other sites — the Kebara and Amud caves — where Neanderthal remains had been found.

Those relics were dated to between 50,000 and 65,000 years of age: in other words, humans from two species may have been contemporaries — possibly even neighbours.

Human remains ... the ancient skull was found inside this cave, which had been sealed off for 30,000 years. Picture: AP

“It has been suspected that modern man and Neanderthals were in the same place at the same time, but we didn’t have the physical evidence,” said Bruce Latimer, a palaeontologist at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio.

Evolutionary journey ... scientists says the skull dates from around 55,000 years ago, about the time scientists believe the migration from Africa reached that area..

Once considered outlandish, the sex-with-Neanderthals theory has gained a lot of ground since 2010, thanks to analysis of DNA coaxed from Neanderthal bones.

This suggests that about two per cent of the genetic heritage of non-African humans today comes from Neanderthals.

Sex with humans ... the skull provides evidence that modern man and Neanderthals were in the same place at the same time.

Incredibly, the cave was only discovered after a bulldozer broke through the roof after cutting a sewer trench.

Before the accidental collapse, the contents of the cave had been sealed off for 30,000 years.

The skull, which is believed to be female and is missing a face and jaw, was found sitting on a rocky shelf.

The new research shows it is clearly possible that Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalis may have encountered one another, said Latimer.

“Both modern humans and Neanderthals contemporaneously inhabited the southern Levant, close in time to the likely interbreeding event with Neanderthals,” says the paper published in science journal Nature.

Amazing find ... Dr Omry Barzilai of Israel's Antiquities Authority holds the ancient skul. Picture:AP

Homo sapiens probably left Africa to benefit from a warm, damp climate in the Northern Sahara and Mediterranean, the study authors said.

After venturing into the Middle East, they forked west into Europe and east into South Asia, eventually conquering the entire planet.

“Recent evidence points to the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Europe as early as 45,000 years ago,” the paper adds.