Excavations of Dederiyeh Cave,Afrin,Syria

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A far more thorough understanding of the chronology and paleontology for the Middle Paleolithic in the Levant can be established than was hitherto available. Two significant facts stand out : (a) the several fossil hominid remains found in significantly different depositional contexts during a well-documented stratigraphic and cultural sequence, and (b) the morphology of the lithic and faunal assemblages developed in the Levantine Mousterian contexts. The evidence from the Dederiyeh Cave is regarded as of major importance nowadays, because it has become one of the only few sites for which there are clear stratigraphic associations between hominid remains and well-organized faunal and lithic assemblages (though age determination is underway). Under these situations, the Dederiyeh evidence can contribute to one of the most controversial subjects in the Levant the interpretation of the chronological and phylogenetic relationships between the two different groups of skeletal remains, classified as Neanderthals and early modern humans. The excavations continue to shed further light on this subject.