Researchers found ancient human remains in the Cave of Qaleh Kurd near Avaj in Qazvin Province, Iran, estimated to be between 600,000 and 700,000 years old. The discovery could represent the oldest evidence of human habitation on the Iranian plateau.
The excavations at the Cave of Qaleh Kurd are led by an archaeological team headed by Iranian archaeologist and prehistoric anthropologist Hamid Vahdatinasab and French archaeologist Dr. Gilles Bréon. The team conducted several seasons of excavation, increasing knowledge about early human life in Iran.
“The upper layers are 455,000 years old, and the lower layers are about one and a half meters deeper,” said Vahdatinasab, according to Asriran. “In the worst-case scenario, the age of these lower layers is estimated to be between 600,000 and 700,000 years.”
Dating results showed that the Cave of Qaleh Kurd, with an age of over 452,000 years, provides the oldest evidence of human presence on the Iranian plateau. The archaeological team suspects they will soon find remains of habitation by pre-Neanderthal humans, such as Homo heidelbergensis or even older species like Homo erectus. “Cultural deposits and stone tools indicate that this cave was inhabited by Homo heidelbergensis or even Homo erectus before the Neanderthals,” Vahdatinasab explained.
Numerous stone tools and remains of animal bones were also discovered in the Cave of Qaleh Kurd. In previous excavation seasons, the Iranian-French team obtained valuable findings, including the discovery of two Neanderthal teeth dating back 175,000 and 180,000 years. One of the most important findings is a Neanderthal child's milk tooth, approximately 155,000 to 175,000 years old, discovered in the second season of excavations in 2019. This tooth, kept in the Qazvin Museum, was the oldest known human remains on the Iranian plateau until that time.
The excavations reached layers older than the Neanderthal period (about 455,000 years ago) and are ongoing. “Dating results from the third and fourth seasons, which are several meters deeper, have not yet been received,” Vahdatinasab said. The dating process is time-consuming; laboratories have long queues, and preliminary work must be done with great care.
The cave has undergone several seasons of excavation, and in the sixth season, the team hopes to discover even older ages. “In the sixth season, they may discover even older ages,” the team suggested. If this dating confirms an age between 600,000 and 700,000 years, it will be the first time remains of human habitation from this time period are discovered in Iran.
This makes the Cave of Qaleh Kurd a key site for studying human dispersal between the Middle East and Asia. Comparatively, in Georgia, the Dmanisi site has five Georgian human skulls and an age of 1.77 million years. “This gives hope that Georgian humans passed through Iran, and perhaps evidence of that will be found in Iran,” the team expressed.
Excluding the Mediterranean coast, Qaleh Kurd shows the oldest Neanderthal evidence in this region so far. “This time period is not related to Neanderthals, as Neanderthals appeared a maximum of 400,000 years ago,” Vahdatinasab noted.
Vahdatinasab has been an associate professor in the Archaeology Department at Tarbiat Modares University since 2008. His work includes the book The Origin of Man (Iran Negar Publishing, 2014) with a preface by Abbas Alizadeh and Jeffrey Clarke, which comprehensively examines human evolution.
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