Archaeobotany Remnants of
endocarps have been directly dated; the results revealed that
Canarium schweinfurthii was utilized in 11,300 cal BP as the earliest in the region of
West Africa, and that the utilization of canarium, as well as likely
oil palm, occurred prior to 10,000 BP.
Description The
cranial vault is relatively long and low, and the
frontal bone shows moderate recession. The
brow ridges are moderately developed for a male and there is no pronounced
nasal root. What remains of the nasal area suggest that the
nasal bridge was relatively flat, and the evidence from X-rays points to little
frontal sinus development. The upper face is missing except for a small collection of fragments. Parts of the
maxillary-molar region have been identified (including the
infraorbital foramen) and, based on what survives, it is unlikely that the upper face was large. The
mandible is well developed and has a masculine appearance, although there is no pronounced chin. Apart from two lower premolars, the teeth are not attached to the jaws and it is uncertain where the surviving teeth were originally placed. All the
anterior teeth show noticeable
attrition and most of the
crown has been eroded by wear. Based on the evidence of
tooth wear, the age of Iho Eleru fossil has been estimated as over 30 years. What remains of the rest of the skeleton are generally crushed fragments of large bones. The shafts of the
humeri appear robust and the
cortical bone is moderately thick. The shafts of the
radius and
femur are also robust. The existing remains suggest he was of medium height and build, and was no taller than approximately 165cm.
Analysis Don Brothwell and Thurstan Shaw said in 1971 that the sloping frontal vault was more pronounced in Iho Eleru fossil than in both later Neolithic and recent sub-Saharan skull samples. However, they also found that the
occipital structure, nasal root and the frontal bone of the skull "would qualify for identification as that of a proto-West African negro." In 1974 Chris Stringer said that there were surprising similarities between the crania of the much older
Solo Man and
Omo II with that of Iho Eleru. The 2011 study found that "Iwo Eleru possesses neurocranial morphology intermediate in shape between archaic hominins (
Neanderthals and
Homo erectus) and modern humans." The authors of the study asserted that the dating of Iho Eleru fossil to the late
Pleistocene "implies that the transition to anatomical modernity in Africa was more complicated than previously thought, with late survival of "archaic" features and possibly deep population substructure in Africa during this time." In 2014 Christopher Stojanowski of
Arizona State University summarised the three dominant explanations for Iho Eleru fossil's atypical cranial shape: the first, that Iho Eleru was a hybrid with archaic African populations; the second, that Iho Eleru fossil was a member of a relict archaic population that was replaced by more modern humans upon the onset of the Holocene era; and the third, that Iho Eleru fossil was part of a population that diverged from the rest of North Africa's populations during a time of acute aridness in the
Sahara desert that made it impassable until the arrival of the
African humid period. In 2014 Peter J. Waddell of
Massey University argued that Iho Eleru man descended from a lineage 200–400
kya and whose extinction may have been caused by humans. Waddell also said: "Such a long apparently distinct lineage that terminated in West Africa perhaps 12kya, with no obvious sign of living descendants, suggests that the Iho Eleru lineage quite probably represents a distinct species of near modern human. As such, the species name
Homo iwoelerueensis suggests itself." However, the
University of Washington's Fred L. Bookstein cautions against naming the fossil as a new species until more confirmatory evidence is discovered.
Stone tools Roughly half of a million stone tools have been discovered at Iho Eleru. ==See also==