关键词: Zuttiyeh, Homo erectus, Neandertal, Zhoukoudian, Asia, Levant

Abstract: The frontofacial fragment from Zuttiyeh, Israel is at least 120,000 years old. Recognition of this antiquity suggests that it could be ancestral to any of the later populations of the Levant. Some workers have regarded it as an early Neandertal, and others as an early “anatomically modern Homo sapiens”. We believe the specimen could most profitably be compared with the Zhoukoudian Homo erectus remains. From these systematic comparisons we find a detailed similarity in spite of the difference in time and the spacial distance between these sites. In this paper we discuss the implications of this similarity in terms of the regional continuity explanation for human evolution. This relationship is an important one for understanding the ancestry and relations of the Levantine populations of the Upper Pleistocene. It has significant implications for the “Garden of Eden” theory of modern human origins, since it shows Asia can be an important source area for at least some living populations.

Key words: Zuttiyeh, Homo erectus, Neandertal, Zhoukoudian, Asia, Levant