Neanderthals made repeated use of the ancient settlement of 'Ein Qashish, Israel

[Sanguine]

The archaeological site of 'Ein Qashish in northern Israel was a place of repeated Neanderthal occupation and use during the Middle Paleolithic, according to a study released June 26, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Ravid Ekshtain of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and colleagues.

In the Levant region of the Middle East, the main source of information on Middle Paleolithic human occupation comes from cave sites. Compared to open air settlements, sheltered sites like caves were easily recognized and often visited, and therefore are more likely to record long periods of occupation. The open-air site of 'Ein Qashish in northern Israel, however, is unusual in having been inhabited over an extended prehistoric time period. This site provides a unique opportunity to explore an open-air locality across a large landscape and over a long period ranging between 71,000 and 54,000 years ago.

In a joint collaboration with the Israel Antiquities Authority Ekshtain and colleagues identified human skeletal remains in 'Ein Qashish as Neanderthal and observed more than 12,000 artifacts from four different depositional units in the same location on the landscape. These units represent different instances of occupation during changing environmental conditions. ...



https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-06/p-nmr061919.php

[roamer_1]

Funny how that works - as much as it changes, it stays the same...

Places that are comfortable and easy to exploit, folks just naturally keep coming back...

I have a much favored fishing hole up on Fatty Creek.
It's just such a nice camp. Well sheltered, but a pretty easy access. No blow-downs, no widow-makers, but with plentiful firewood and easy access to the creek.

One of the last times I was up that way, I got to thinking like this, and actually looked around...
Didn't take me long to find the castings...
Yep, right there where I was setting, some injun feller was sitting in the same dang place a hundred years ago, making arrowheads.

Go figger.