Skip to content

Becoming human: Presentation on Mount Carmel sites and cultural origins

A visit to Israel occasions reflections on the cultural evolution of humans and Neandertals.

1 min read
John Hawks in front of a wadi with a limestone massif and caves in the distance.
John Hawks at the Nahal Me'arot World Heritage Site, Israel

As I prepared my massive open online course, I had the chance to travel to Israel for the opening of the Nahal Me'arot UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This wadi emerging from Mount Carmel is the location of three important archaeological sites. Tabun Cave has an archaeological sequence that spans nearly 300,000 years. Its layers provide a key for stone tool industries across the Levant. Skhūl is a cave site that has brecciated terraces with archaeological material and burials of early modern humans, roughly 100,000 years old. El Wad is a site with abundant evidence of Natufian and later occupation.

I took the occasion to reflect on the development of cultural adaptations to the same landscape by different populations over the last 100,000 years.

Human Evolution: Past and FutureNeandertalsIsraelmodern human originsVideo by John Hawks
John Hawks

John Hawks Twitter

I'm a paleoanthropologist exploring the world of ancient humans and our fossil relatives.


Related Posts

Members Public

Pounding starches on Jordan's ancient banks

New research highlights starch grains from many kinds of plants that were processed by pounding tools at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov.

A series of irregularly shaped stones imaged from several angles with closeups of each
Members Public

Seeing Neandertal teeth as art

The photography of Luka Mjeda brought a new way of looking at the teeth of the Krapina people.

Image of a Neandertal molar tooth with stylized colors
Members Public

The circumstances of the Taung discovery

The textbook story of the fossil leaves out a wider context in which scientists interpreted the first evidence of Australopithecus.

A view of the Taung skull and endocast from right lateral view