A recent re-examination of artifacts collected from Israel’s central Negev desert has revealed important details about the development of human culture in the region, according to a new study published in the journal PNAS. Precise archaeological dating techniques of artifacts from the Boker Tachtit site have shifted the known timeline of the arrival of modern humans to about 50,000 years ago. This would make Boker Tachtit the oldest modern human settlement in the Levant, and means that early Homo sapiens occupied the region at the same time as the Neanderthals.
Timeline of Neanderthal-Modern Human Transition in the Negev Desert
Throughout Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, modern human culture displaced Neanderthal culture during the transition from the Middle Paleolithic to the Upper Paleolithic. This transition was marked by important technological innovations, including the invention and production of sharp blades for cutting and the use of standardized tools made from antlers and animal bones. The transition occurred between 50,000 and 40,000 years ago, with changes taking place later in Europe and Asia since it took longer for modern humans to arrive there once they’d left their African homeland.
