It may be known for modern- day conflict, but 80,000 years ago the Holy Land may
have been the only place where early homo sapiens and neanderthals lived
peacefully, new archeological findings suggest.
Archeologists working on
Mount Carmel’s Nahal Me’arot, UNESCO’s most recently declared World Heritage
Site, found evidence that the genealogical relatives lived side by side and
perhaps even interbred, according to a report in The Times of London.
“If
that interbreeding did take place, it must have been here,”said Daniel Kaufman,
an archeologist working at the site.
Genetic research showing Neanderthal
genes make up 1 to 4 percent of European genes supports the notion of peaceful
interbreeding between the two subspecies.
Earlier theories speculated
that the relationship was the result of rape between the constantly warring
groups.
Archeologists have found tools of both Homo sapiens and
Neanderthals at the Israeli site.
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