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A Middle Palaeolithic burial of a modern human at Taramsa Hill, Egypt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

P. M. Vermeersch ,
E. Paulissen ,
P. Van Peer ,
S. Stokes ,
C. Charlier ,
C. Stringer  and
W. Lindsay
P. M. Vermeersch
Affiliation:
Instituut voor Aardwetenschappen, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Redingenstraat 16, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium. pierre.vermeersch@geo.kuleuven.ac.be
E. Paulissen
Affiliation:
Instituut voor Aardwetenschappen, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Redingenstraat 16, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium. pierre.vermeersch@geo.kuleuven.ac.be
P. Van Peer
Affiliation:
Instituut voor Aardwetenschappen, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Redingenstraat 16, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium. pierre.vermeersch@geo.kuleuven.ac.be
S. Stokes
Affiliation:
School of Geography, Research Laboratory for Archaeology & the History of Art, Oxford University, 6 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3QJ, England
C. Charlier
Affiliation:
Centre for Human Genetics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Herestraat 49, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium Anthropologisches Insitut der Universität Kiel, Olsenhausenstraße 40–60, D-24118 Kiel, Germany
C. Stringer
Affiliation:
Department of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, England
W. Lindsay
Affiliation:
Department of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, England
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Abstract

Discussion about a possible African origin of modern humans is hampered by the lack of Late Pleistocene skeletal material from the Nile valley, the likely passage-way from East Africa to Asia and Europe. Here we report the discovery of a burial of an anatomically modern child from southern Egypt. Its clear relation with Middle Palaeolithic chert extraction activities and a series of OSL dates, from correlative aeolian sands, suggests an age between 49,800 and 80,400 years ago, with a mean age of 55,000.

Keywords

Egyptearly modern humanMiddle Palaeolithicburial
Type
Papers
Information
Antiquity , Volume 72 , Issue 277 , September 1998 , pp. 475 - 484
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1998

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