Metrical reconsideration of the Skhul IV and IX and Border Cave 1 crania in the context of modern human origins

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Abstract
The “out‐of‐Africa” models for origins of modern Homo sapiens incorporate Skhul as one site documenting that early origination. However, only Skhul V is usually considered in the comparative craniology of the question, neglecting the other substantial crania, Skhul IV and IX. Craniometric comparison demonstrates that IV and IX amplify the picture of continuous gradations of Neandertal‐to‐modern variations throughout the Levant; much variation is thus represented within this one site, raising serious questions about Neandertals and moderns being discrete and long‐separated species. Qafzeh 6 too is craniophenetically closer to Neandertals than to the true anatomically modern people of the European Upper Paleolithic. Proper distance analysis of Border Cave 1 cranium shows it is actually far removed from modern African populations. References to Qafzeh, Skhul, and Border Cave as “fully anatomically modern” require reconsideration.