The Mediterranean Plains Where Neanderthals and Modern Humans Came Together

Credit: IR Stone

We have thought that we were smarter than Neanderthals. Modern humans entered the scene 200,000 years ago and quickly dominated the food chain. Neanderthals were thought to have been pushed to extinction by humans.

The simplified version of our human origin is not true according to archeologists. The Stone Age archeology of the Levant, which spans the Mediterranean shores of the Middle East today, gives a cloudier view of our evolutionary past. It is believed that the coastal plain and hill country was home to a melting pot of Neanderthals and H. sapiens for more than 100,000 years.