Led by João Zilhão, the archaeologists found the skull in a cave in Aroeira, near Torres Novas in the centre of the country. He presented their conclusions in a study published in this week’s edition of the bulletin of the US National Academy of
Sciences.
“It is the oldest (human) fossil found in Portugal, and one of the oldest in Europe”, João Zilhão told Lusa News Agency.
“We had never found a human fossil from the Pleistocene (Ice age) period, which goes from about 2.5 million years ago up until just 11,500 years ago, so far west in Europe.”
The archaeologist added that one of the most exciting things about the fossil is that “it is very well dated and is now the benchmark to interpret other more complete fossils that are not so well dated.”
The cave also turned up animal remains and stone tools such as axes.
“The Aroeira skull is the oldest human fossils ever found in Portugal and it shares some characteristics with other fossil from the same period that have been found in Spain, France and Italy”, said archaeologist Ralf Quam, from the University of Binghamton, in the USA.
Archaeologists unearth 400,000-year-old skull fossil in central Portugal
By TPN/Lusa, in News · 16 Mar 2017, 14:55 · 1 Comments
How do they know that it is a 400,000 years old ? How do they count it ? Oh please!
By azoreseuropa from USA on 17 Mar 2017, 11:58