The discovery of well-preserved human remains at the site of Ohalo II in the northern Jordan Valley substantially augments the meager fossil record of the Levantine late Upper Pleistocene. The Ohalo II H2 specimen, dated to ca. 19,000 B.P., is the most complete early Epipaleolithic hominid discovered in Israel and promises to contribute to the clarification of a number of problematic issues in the local evolution of anatomically modern humans. In addition to a description of the burial and its Kebaran context, a detailed anatomical description of the skeleton is offered and morphometric comparisons are made to other Upper Paleolithic hominids. Ohalo II H2 is shown to demonstrate affinities in the craniofacial skeleton to fossils from the early Upper Paleolithic and late Epi-Paleolithic of the Levant.
The spread of thalassemia among prehistoric populations of the Mediterranean Basin has been linked to the increased risk to early agriculturalists posed by the Plasmodium falciparum parasite. The diagnosis of the disease in human skeletal remains, however, has usually been based on a single pathological criterion, porotic hyperostosis. This paper reports on what we believe to be the earliest case of thalassemia yet identified in the prehistoric record. Our diagnosis of the disease in an individual from the submerged Prepottery Neolithic B village of Atlit-Yam off the Israeli coast is based on a pathological humerus demonstrating a pattern of deformation characteristic of clinical thalassemia. The implications of these findings for our understanding of human societies undergoing the transition from foraging to agriculture in the Near East are discussed.
We report here an unusual pathology in a 1,500-year-old skeleton recovered from Bet Guvrin, Israel. The pathological changes in the lower extremities and the diagnostic difficulties are presented. We attribute this condition to Madura foot, found primarily in tropical and subtropical regions, although other diagnoses are possible and are noted. We discuss its appearance in the region in light of the historical context.
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