Jebel Irhoud

Djebel Irhoud (also: Jebel Irhoud, Jebel Ighoud ) is an archaeological and paleoanthropological cave site in Morocco. The 1960 discovered in the breakdown of barite karst cave is located near Sidi Mokhtar, about 100 kilometers north-west of Marrakech and 55 km southeast of Safi.

Finds

In 1961 was in the cave during the excavations of Émile Ennouchi a largely preserved homininer skull of an adult discovered ( Irhoud 1), two years later, the recovery of a skull followed ( Irhoud 2); both findings were initially interpreted as North African Neanderthals, since the stone tools found at Jebel Irhoud predominantly features of Levallois point, which is connected to the Neanderthals.

1968 the recovery of the fossil Irhoud 3, the lower jaw of a child with well-preserved dentition. Four other, less meaningful hominin fossils have been recovered in the following years, including the upper arm bone of a child ( Irhoud 4).

1981 gave a detailed analysis of juvenile mandible Irhoud 3, however, that the hominin fossils belong to early anatomically modern humans and may have been the earliest representatives in the Maghreb. They are therefore potentially precursor associated with the culture of the arteries, much younger hominin fossils from the locality Dar es Soltane II on the Atlantic coast near Rabat; particularly the skull Dar es Soltane 5 has similar features to the skull Irhoud 1 and 2.

The dating methods that were in the 1960s available, initially did not provide safe results for the hominin bones; of horse teeth from a comparable position finds an age of about 100,000 was derived in 1991. Only the studies begun in 2004 from a group led by Jean -Jacques Hublin finally provided in 2007 is regarded as secured finding an age of 160,000 ± 16,000 years.

This 2007 from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology carried out with the synchrotron studies of a lower jaw tooth of the fossil Irhoud 3 also gave clues to the life story of a child of the early anatomically modern humans. The results suggest a long childhood - the concomitant development of the brain as well as a simultaneous forming socialization process may have been the earliest Homo sapiens therefore crucial.