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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2024
Over the last twenty years the debate over the origin of modern Man has broadened, the supporters of a theory of regional diversification of Homo sapiens being often opposed by those holding to the single source theory (the ‘Out of Africa’ model). At the same time, the idea of Homo neanderthalensis as a separate species was being resurrected, supported by bone classification typology and drawing on arguments derived from palaeogenetic analyses, which buttressed the case for the existence of distinct species and for privileging an African origin for modern humans. The prospects offered by palaeogenetic research to find answers for the questions concerning the relationship between modern humans and Neanderthals throw up numerous questions and all the obstacles have not yet been removed. Palaeoanthropology, from its point of view, casts major doubt on the thesis according to which man has always evolved in the same direction.
1. The incomplete Singa skull, as described by Spoor et al. (1998), is pathological, which poses certain problems of interpretation.
2. Y. Rak, for his part, supports a placement in the species Homo neanderthalensis (1990).
3. Accelerator Mass Spectrometry.
4. A closely similar age may well be determined for the early-discovered human bones at Kent Carven in Great Britain (Henry-Gambier, 2005b).
