To be honest, I have always been confused by the idea that the first Homo sapiens appeared "in hot yellow Africa." Because there were no prerequisites for the evolution of our ancestors on this continent: they lived according to the principle “our happiness is constant, chew coconuts, eat bananas”. And to develop, you need serious incentives. At the same time, the northern cold is not an ideal habitat for someone who has not yet taken the next step in evolution.
At the junction of three continents
Ten years ago, I came to the conclusion, not logically or intuitively, that humanity could have arisen only where all the paths of world history intersect, and the climate is mild enough, but not favorable enough for idleness. That is, at the junction of three "old" continents - Africa, Asia and Europe, from where the ancestors could easily go across the world. Some call this territory the Eastern Mediterranean, others the Middle East, others Palestine, and the Jews - Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel).
This idea was very harmoniously combined with the Holy Scriptures. For where was Adam born? In Paradise. And where was he, together with Eve, expelled from the Gardens of Eden? To a sinful land. Where exactly? Yes, in this one, which in ancient times became the focus of ethnic and political cataclysms! It is here in Israel that the tomb of Adam is located. According to Jewish sources, the forefather Abraham had to sacrifice his son Isaac on it; according to Christian legends, which do not contradict the Jewish ones, but only clarify them, the ashes of the first man rests under Calvary, on which Jesus was crucified. Of course, deep excavations under Calvary cannot be carried out - it is forbidden to disturb the peace of the dead, even if they did not exist long before historical materialism. And around the pagan graves, orthodox Jews pickets,preventing excavations (the ardor of the picketers did not fade away even after the bones of pigs sacrificed during the pagan burial rite were found in human tombs in ancient Jaffa, now the southern suburb of Tel Aviv). In Jerusalem, where Golgotha is located, religious Jews constitute a large percentage of the population, and their protests may even develop into a kind of civil war in the capital of Israel.
Homo sapiens - 400 thousand years old?
So, if Adam and Eve lived in the future Promised Land, then it is quite logical to assume that the first Homo sapiens appeared here. And confirmation of this was found. Recent archaeological discoveries prove that the first Homo sapiens actually lived in Israel!
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… Evidence of the presence of Homo sapiens here was eight teeth, clearly belonging to Homo sapiens, and not to his ancient progenitor. Archaeologists at Tel Aviv University discovered them in the Kesem Cave (Cave of Miracles), located near the city of Rosh HaAyin (a town northeast of Tel Aviv). The age of the find is 400 thousand years, which is significantly more than the age of the sites of primitive man discovered in Africa (200 thousand years), which until recently were considered the earliest traces of the habitation of Homo sapiens on Earth.
The Cave of Miracles was discovered in 2000 by Prof. Avi Gopher and Dr. Ran Barkai from the Faculty of Archeology. Later, Israel Gershkovich, professor at the Faculty of Anatomy and Anthropology at the Sackler Medical School at Tel Aviv University, and a group of foreign experts who studied the morphology of human teeth found in the cave, joined the excavation. Scientists have confirmed that the teeth belong precisely to Homo sapiens, and not to his ancient ancestor.
Anthropologists study
X-rays and computed tomography were used in the study. Anthropologists have carefully studied the size and shape of the found teeth, confirming their undoubted similarity with the teeth of modern humans. The teeth of the first Homo sapiens are similar to those found in Skhul Cave on Mount Carmel and in Kafze Cave in the Lower Galilee near Nazareth (northern Israel), the age of this find was "only" about 100 thousand years.
Archaeologists hope that the rarities from the Cave of Miracles will tell a lot about the behavior of Homo sapiens. According to Judy Siegel, a scientific columnist for the Jerusalem Post, this period is considered critical in the history of the formation of ancient man in a biological and cultural perspective. The structure of the teeth found in the cave confirms that the changes were caused by the evolutionary development taking place at that time.
According to Avi Gopher and Rahn Barak, these finds can be used to learn more about the cultural characteristics of the time. The representatives of Homo sapiens who lived here have already begun to systematically make primitive stone knives, knew how to kindle and maintain a fire, resorted to various hunting methods, divided prey between members of the tribe, and obtained materials for the production of household items. All these innovations, discoveries and achievements formed new behavioral models that subsequently determined the appearance and qualities of a modern person.
Discovered specimens of human teeth, both permanent and deciduous, date back to the Middle Pleistocene. Chronologically, they precede human bones found in large numbers in Southwest Asia.
Are we not Africans?
Although none of the teeth found in Kesem Cave resemble those of the Neanderthals, the ancestors of Homo sapiens, some specimens show a definite evolutionary continuity that proves the close relationship between the two species. However, according to Gopher and Barkai, what is most striking is the resemblance of the teeth to the fossils from the caves on Mount Carmel and in the Lower Galilee.
Scientists emphasize that "Kesem" teeth are changing the deep-rooted idea that Africa is the ancestral home of modern man. In recent years, archaeologists have unearthed skeletons and bones of ancient people in Spain and China, and this also undermines widespread beliefs about the whereabouts of the cradle of humanity. And the Israeli finds in the cave seem to have put an end to this question.
Excavations continue, and archaeologists hope to make new discoveries that shed light on the course of evolution and development of modern man.
… Several media outlets were quick to announce that evidence of Jewish birthright had been found; in the "yellow" editions it was mockingly noted that, they say, the Jews were in advance here too …
In fact, it is clear that the primitive people living on the territory of Israel had nothing to do with the Jews or with any other peoples … Or, more precisely, they had to do with all peoples at once - for, as one would expect, the starting point of the human civilization ended up on the very land that Renaissance cartographers portrayed as the center of the universe.
Avshalom Kahlua