Jebel Irhoud

Jebel Irhoud (or Adrar Ighud,  Berber: ) is an archaeological site. It is just north of Tlet Ighoud, about  south-east of Safi in Morocco. 

The site is noted for the hominin fossils that have been found there since its discovery in 1960. Originally thought to be Neanderthals, the specimens have since been assigned to Homo sapiens and have been dated to roughly 300,000 years ago ( for the Irhoud 3 mandible,   based on other fossils and the flint artefacts found nearby)."Here we report the ages, determined by thermoluminescence dating, of fire-heated flint artefacts obtained from new excavations at the Middle Stone Age site of Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, which are directly associated with newly discovered remains of H. sapiens8. A weighted average age places these Middle Stone Age artefacts and fossils at 315 ± 34 thousand years ago. Support is obtained through the recalculated uranium series with electron spin resonance date of 286 ± 32 thousand years ago for a tooth from the Irhoud 3 hominin mandible. 


 References 

Category:Hominins
Category:Archaeological sites in Africa