According to Israeli scientists, these remains cannot be matched with any known Homo species.

Israeli researchers said that they discovered bones belonging to a “new early human” unknown to the scientific community, providing new clues to human evolution.

An archaeological excavation near the city of Ramla by a team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem found prehistoric remains that could not match any known Homo species, including modern humans-Homo sapiens.

In a study published in the journal Science on Thursday, Tel Aviv University anthropologists and archaeologists led by Yossi Zaidner named the discovery “Nesher Ramla Homo type” after the location where the bones were found.

The researchers said in a statement that, dating back to 140,000 to 120,000 years ago, “the human form of Nesher Ramla shares common characteristics with Neanderthals…and ancient humans.”

“At the same time, this type of person is very different from modern people-the skull structure is completely different, there is no chin, and the teeth are very large.”

In addition to human remains, a large number of animal bones and stone tools were also found in this excavation.

“Archaeological discoveries related to human fossils indicate that’Nesher Ramla Homo’ possesses advanced stone tool production technology and is likely to interact with local Homo sapiens,” said archaeologist Zaidner.

“We never thought that at this late in human history, the ancient Homo sapiens roamed the area together with Homo sapiens.”

Researchers believe that some of the fossils previously discovered in Israel dating back 400,000 years may belong to the same prehistoric human type.

Widely accepted theory

Nesher Ramla’s findings challenge the widely accepted theory that Neanderthals first appeared in Europe before migrating south.

Israel Hershkovitz, an anthropologist at Tel Aviv University, said: “Our results show that the famous Neanderthals in Western Europe are just the remnants of a large population living in the Levant-not the other way around.”

Rachel Sarig, a dentist and anthropologist at Tel Aviv University, said this discovery shows that “as a crossroads between Africa, Europe and Asia, the land of Israel is like a melting pot where different populations interact with each other. Mixed, and later spread to the entire old world”.

Sarrig said that small groups of Nesher Ramla type may have migrated to Europe, and later evolved into Neanderthals and Asia, and developed into groups with similar characteristics.

Together with human remains, Ramla excavated and found a large number of animal bones and stone tools [Ammar Awad/Reuters]