SKELETONS FROM SHANIDAR CAVE—SOLECKI 631 
PROVISIONAL RELATIONSHIPS OF THE SHANIDAR NEANDERTHALS TO 
NEAR EASTERN COUNTERPARTS 
Eight cave and rock-shelter sites in southwest Asia, not including 
the Soviet finds, have yielded remains of Neanderthal man. Howell 
(1958, p. 185) enumerates seven of these: M. ez-Zuttiyeh, the caves 
of Mount Carmel (M. et-Tabiin and M. es-Skhil), Shukbah, Djebel 
Qafzeh, Bisitun, and Shanidar. It is noteworthy that of these sites, 
five are in Palestine, the most intensively investigated region. Bisitun 
(Coon, 1951) is a cave site in western Iran. I hesitate to include 
Bisitun in this list, since a positive validation of the skeletal remains 
from this site has never been made to my knowledge. I assume that 
Howell follows Coon’s (1951, p. 79) tentative identification. De- 
serving of recognition as an eighth site of this sort is Karain Cave 
near Antalya, Turkey, where two Neanderthal teeth were reportedly 
discovered (K6ékten, 1949; Senyiirek, 1949). 
Of all these sites, Mount Carmel (Garrod and Bate, 1987; McCown 
and Keith, 1939) presents the best material yet found and published 
in the Near East for comparison with the Shanidar adult Neander- 
thals. However, the situation at Mount Carmel is somewhat complex. 
Neanderthals of the primitive or “conservative” type, represented by 
the Tabtn skeletons, and of the more advanced or “progressive” type, 
represented by the Skhul skeletons, were recovered. Contesting the 
original dating of the skeletons to the Riss-Wiirm interglacial period 
in the Alpine sequence, Vaufrey (1939-1940, pp. 616, 619) and Bordes 
(1955, pp. 504-505) assign the Mount Carmel skeletons to later dates: 
Wiirm I-II interstadial and Wiirm III, respectively (Garrod, 1956, 
p- 50). Garrod (1956, pp. 56, 58-59) notes new evidence to support 
the possibility that the layer at Mount Carmel yielding fossil skeletons 
(Lower Levalloiso-Mousterian) dates from the early stages of Wiirm I. 
Here Howell (1958, p. 188; 1959, p. 9) agrees that the skeletons date 
from Wirm I. Unfortunately, at this writing, no carbon-14 dates are 
available to give us a confirmation of this view. However, Dr. John 
d’A. Waechter of the University of London Institute of Archaeology 
undertook a special mission to Mount Carmel during the summer of 
1959 to recover carbon-14 samples. Pending the results of his inves- 
tigations, carbon-14 dates from elsewhere in the Near East and North 
Africa tend to support Dr. Garrod’s relative dating. According to a 
letter from her dated October 10, 1959, there is additional evidence 
both from the dating of Levalloiso-Mousterian sites by carbon-14 
dates, and from beach terraces, lending additional weight in her favor. 
Dr. Garrod’s relative dating of the Mount Carmel Lower Leval- 
loiso-Mousterian layers and the associated skeletons as of early Wiirm 
I age is close to our more precise dating of the Shanidar adult skele- 
536608—60——45 
