Open AccessThe discovery of an in situ Neanderthal remain in the Bawa Yawan Rockshelter, West-Central Zagros Mountains, Kermanshah
Author(s) -
Saman Heydari–Guran,
Stefano Benazzi,
Sahra Talamo,
Elham Ghasidian,
Nemat Hariri,
Gregorio Oxilia,
Samran Asiabani,
Faramarz Azizi,
Rahmat Naderi,
Reza Safaierad,
JeanJacques Hublin,
Robert Foley,
Marta Mirazón Lahr
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0253708
Subject(s) - neanderthal , mousterian , context (archaeology) , homo sapiens , geography , extinction (optical mineralogy) , period (music) , paleontology , archaeology , evolutionary biology , biology , cave , physics , acoustics
Neanderthal extinction has been a matter of debate for many years. New discoveries, better chronologies and genomic evidence have done much to clarify some of the issues. This evidence suggests that Neanderthals became extinct around 40,000–37,000 years before present (BP), after a period of coexistence with Homo sapiens of several millennia, involving biological and cultural interactions between the two groups. However, the bulk of this evidence relates to Western Eurasia, and recent work in Central Asia and Siberia has shown that there is considerable local variation. Southwestern Asia, despite having a number of significant Neanderthal remains, has not played a major part in the debate over extinction. Here we report a Neanderthal deciduous canine from the site of Bawa Yawan in the West-Central Zagros Mountains of Iran. The tooth is associated with Zagros Mousterian lithics, and its context is preliminary dated to between ~43,600 and ~41,500 years ago.