Neanderthals Lived In Iran's Kermanshah Caves

The latest excavations by Iranian and French joint team at prehistoric caves of Kermanshah, west of Iran, revealed them to have been early settlements of Neanderthals who used to live there about 85000 to 40000 years ago.

The joint team was to continue its studies on other Paleolithic caves in Kermanshah province, but as the term of the agreement has reached an end, the French team have returned back home. This team is to resume its activities in March 2006 in prehistoric caves in Kermanshah province if the agreement is renewed for an extended term.

Asadollah Piranvand, head of Kermanshah branch office of Iran's Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization, said, "This team conducted some research in prehistoric caves of the province in March 2005, which revealed these caves to be early settlements of Neanderthals about 85000 to 40000 years ago."

"The Iranian and French joint team has also excavated some caves in Mahabad in Western Azarbaijan province, as well as in Niasar, a recently discovered cave in Lorastan province. But the major part of their project was focused on Kermanshah province. This week, they traveled to Kermanshah and visited some archaeological caves of the province, particularly Martarik and Mardodar caves," added he.

Martarik cave, which is in fact a small geomorphological chamber of 80 square meters area, is situated 30 kilometers northeast of Kermanshah town, the capital of the province, on the flank of Bistoun Mount. Discovered evidence at caves like Markhar, Martarik, and Shekarchiyan, show that they were among the very first human settlements.

However, the recent excavations at Martarik faced some difficulties because of insufficient room inside the cave which has turned the archaeological remains into a total mess over thousands of years.

The excavations at these caves were conducted by the Archaeology Research Centre of ICHTO during past few weeks in cooperation with Bordeaux University from France. The whole project was headed by Fereidoun Biglari.

used to live there about 85000 to 40000 years ago

There were, like, 45,000 years of empty meatlovers pizza boxes piled all over the cave.

The Neandertal Enigma
by James Shreeve
Frayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]
Taste for flesh troubled Neanderthals
by Dr Damian Carrington
BBC News Online
Monday, 12 June, 2000
The extinction of the Neanderthals could have been caused by their choosy appetites - they ate virtually nothing but meat... "They were picky eaters," says Dr Paul Pettitt, at the University of Oxford, UK. "And this tells me that they are really unchanging - doing the same old thing year after year... Neanderthals were excellent hunters," Dr Petitt told BBC News Online. "But the issue that was at stake was whether they hunted every day of their lives or whether it was just a summer outing." ...The early humans themselves may have been better hunters than the Neanderthals, depriving them of their kills. Or the hunted animals may have been struck by disease or migrated away.
Veggies Really Are Brain Food
Fire helped early humans evolve and become more intelligent not because it allowed them to barbecue meat, but because it allowed them to cook vegetables, researchers said on Tuesday. Learning how to cook probably also allowed humans to develop their unique monogamous society. Gregory Laden of the University of Minnesota, Richard Wrangham of Harvard University and colleagues noted that very early pre-humans, including the australopithecines such as "Lucy," had huge teeth and powerful jaws. By 1.9 million years ago, when Homo erectus appeared, teeth became smaller and jawbones less robust. Females got bigger—closer in size to males. Brains and bodies both grew. While some anthropologists argue it was because meat entered the diet, Laden and a team of anthropologists, nutritionists and primatologists said the changes occurred because the pre-humans had discovered fire and learned how to make roots and other vegetables easier to eat and more nutritious.
Shift In Eating Habits Of Early Modern Humans
2 May 2001
Compared to Neanderthals living in inland Europe up to 100,000 years earlier, who relied primarily on land animals for their protein, early modern humans supplemented their diets with a significant amount of fish and waterfowl. The evidence has been outlined in a paper entitled 'Stable isotope evidence for increasing dietary breadth in the European mid-Upper Paleolithi', which is scheduled to appear in the May 22 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. Dr Michael Richards, of the Department of Archaeological Sciences, at the University of Bradford, said: "This new information highlights the differences in diets between Neanderthals and early modern humans and shows that modern humans were more flexible and adaptable in their dietary choices. This ability to adapt and use a range of resources could perhaps have given us, as a species, a competitive edge over the Neanderthals."
A Rumination on the Invention of Soup
March 1, 2002
It was a particularly tough and dangerous world back then. These hunter-gatherers were stuck in the last blast of the Wurm glaciation that killed off so much of their food and so many species. It was every man for himself as they ran fearfully from--and ran hungrily after--woolly mammoths, sabre-tooth tigers, wolves, and other hominids. And yet elderly Neanderthal skeletons have been found in France with teeth worn down below gum level--and deeply crippled skeletons have been found too. Implication: They could only have been kept alive through the compassion of their communities and the brilliance of some nouvelle cuisine chef who could find food alternatives to incredibly indigestible plants, meat tougher than my old aunt's shoes, and all of it cold. I try to put myself under the toque of that Stone Age Julia Child. I imagine him or her using bark to dip and carry water...putting food bits in it and noticing them soften or swell...marking how plants and berries, meat and marrow chunks would infuse the water with color and flavor. I imagine him or her getting the idea of warm broth from the 98.6 degree Fahrenheit mother's milk that kept little Neanderthal babies happy. That's when it hits me: Soup! It's an unbelievable achievement.
Fossilized excrement may show links between Neanderthal Man and present day humans
Thursday December 18th 1997
Fossilized excrement found in a cave in Gibraltar may show whether there are links between Neanderthal man and present day humans, British scientists said Wednesday. Professor Chris Stringer of London hailed what he called a "spectacular discovery" earlier this year by a team of international experts. After they found the specimens near a fireplace, the scientists wrapped them in metal foil and plastic bags to prevent contamination. In January, the specimens will be sent to Munich to be sectioned and analyzed for DNA content. Scientists do not yet know why Neanderthal man died 27,000 to 35,000 years ago.

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