Two 2021 papers published in Science, one by Israel Hershkovitz et al. (A Middle Pleistocene Homo from Nesher Ramla, Israel, Science 372, 1424-1428. DOI:10.1126/science.abh3169 🔒), the other by Yossi Zaidner et al. (Middle Pleistocene Homo behavior and culture at 140,000 to 120,000 years ago and interactions with Homo sapiens.Science 372, 1429-1433. DOI:10.1126/science.abh3020 🔒) describe hominins living in what is now Israel using stone tool technologies associated to both modern humans and Neanderthals yet different two both of those lineages. These fossils have been dated to around 120,000 ti 140,000 years ago (120 - 140 kya), in the Middle Pleistocene (or MP).
Not Modern Humans or Neanderthals
The second paper states that "The evidence from Nesher Ramla demonstrates that late MP Homo fully mastered advanced Levallois technology that until only recently was linked to either H. sapiens or Neanderthals." It also mentions that this stone knapping technology was due to contact between different human groups ("cultural diffusion"), and this implies that they admixed: "These results are consistent with a growing body of genetic studies suggesting that a gene flow existed between divergent archaic Homo populations and H. sapiens during the late Middle and early Late Pleistocene. Our findings provide archaeological support for close cultural interactions between different human lineages during the Middle Paleolithic period and suggest that contacts between MP Homo and H. sapiens had already occurred prior to 120 ka."
The first paper proposes that these Middle Pleistocene hominins, which they call NR, after Nesher Ramla, the site in Israe where they were found, are distinct from both modern humans and Neanderthals. They present the following unrooted phylogenetic tree (Fig 2b) which they describe as having "NR-1 close to the origin of the branch leading to African MP Homo, close to the split from the H. erectus branch and to European MP Homo and Neanderthals (including Atapuerca SH), and far from early and recent H. sapiens".
Notice how it is midway between the Eurasian Homo erectus, and the African MP hominins (like the ergaster, and H. rhodesiensis).
The authors point out that their analysis of the fossils show that they are a mossaic, with "a unique combination of archaic and Neanderthal features, supporting the existence of a local, Levantine population at the final MP... showing that an affiliation of the NR fossils with early and recent H. sapiens is highly unlikely, but that it is impossible to establish whether NR fossils are more likely to be classified as MP Homo, Neanderthal, or H. erectus (the latter for the parietal only)" So, it is different from the Homo sapiens lineage yet similar to erectus, Neanderthals or MP homo. They probabilities assigned by the study are: 41% Homo erectus, 34% MP Homo, and 25% Neanderthal.
Due to their recent age of 120 to 140 ky, the researchers suggest that they are the last survivors of an ancient Southwestern Asian homo group that could include other specimens found in the Middle East, like the Quesem and Zuttiyeh Caves individuals, and also Tabun Cavre. If this is the case they lived here between 420 and 120 ky ago. They could have admixed with the Homo sapiens of Misliya Cave, and also the Neanderthals of Skhul and Qafzeh.
They propose that the Nesher Ramla Homo is the source of the populations found in Western Europe such as the Arago and Atapuerca Sima de los Huesos (SH) specimens: "... contribution of Levantine Homo groups carrying Neanderthal-like traits to European Homo lineages. The NR Homo, carrying Neanderthal-like traits, could thus represent the “source” population... according to which Western Europe was repopulated through a series of successive migrations." The paper's bibliography cites de Castro et al., 2019, who proposed an explanation for the differences between them: "...Whereas the SH teeth present an almost morphological identity with European Neanderthals, the Arago teeth exhibit a combination of plesiomorphic as well as some Neanderthal-derived features. In addition, the Arago crown dimensions are remarkably larger than those from SH, the differences being statistically significant for most variables. We hypothesize that during the Middle Pleistocene the European continent was settled at different points in time by hominin groups coming from Southwest Asia, probably from a common mother population evolving in this latter region."
What I find interesting, is that these are Eurasian hominins, all of them, none are African. It somehow hints at a Middle Eastern origin of the population that led to Neanderthals, with a link to Homo erectus, and which is also associated with Mid Pleistocene Western European hominins like the Atapuerca Homo antecessor. The MP African hominins are not even close to these Levantine people.
The paper does not state it, but it follows logically, that modern humans could have originated in this region too.
Denisovans?
A very smart suggestion posted by John Hawks is that these Nesher Ramla people were Denisovans!
Hawks wrote: "One possibility may fit well, and I've not seen anybody mention it. We already know that there was a third population out there: the Denisovans. The DNA data from central Asia show us that Neandertal and Denisovan populations were sometimes in contact with each other, across more than 100,000 years of time, and that they mixed where they met. We do not know what the geographic range of Denisovans may have been across the southern tier of Asia. Many researchers have emphasized the Denisovans as an “eastern” population, due to the high representation of Denisovan ancestry in island southeast Asia and Oceania. But we have very little fossil evidence about the ancient populations of India and Pakistan, and the known Neandertals from Teshik-Tash, Uzbekistan and Shanidar, Iraq, are more recent than 100,000 years. So why not Denisovans in the Levant before 120,000 years ago?"
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