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This is the skull with alleged Negroid or east african features.
The Markina Gora skeleton was examined by G.F. Debetz, who estimated the individual’s age at 20-25. The man was rather low-statured (about 160 cm). The morphology of his skeleton is generally quite modern. Certain cranial features, including very narrow braincase, low and narrow face, marked prognathism (anterior protrusion of the midface), and very wide nose, are typical of tropical populations. The trait combination links the cranium with those of Papuans and Melanesians.
Certain other Upper Paleolithic crania from Europe, too, display “tropical” features. Bodily proportions of Early Upper Paleolithic people reveal southern characteristics as well. This also concerns the arm proportions of the Markina Gora individual, whose forearm was relatively long compared to the shoulder.
The meaning of those facts is yet unclear. Modern geographic human groups (so called “races”) had not completely formed by the Upper Paleolithic, and some of their characteristics may have incidentally appeared in various parts of the world. On the other hand, tropical features may indicate that anatomically modern humans had migrated to Europe from the south, specifically from Africa. Genetic data favor such possibility.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that the supposedly Upper Paleolithic age of the burial has not been proven by absolute (radiocarbon) dating methods. The burial may actually be rather recent and unrelated to the enclosing cultural layer. If so, the appearance of the Markina Gora individual is even more difficult to explain.
M.M. Gerasimov, like G.F. Debetz, believed that people of such appearance or their direct ancestors had actually migrated to Europe in the early Upper Paleolithic from areas lying far south. Therefore he endowed the reconstructed individual with tropical characteristics including curly hair. The future will hopefully show whether or not this “artistic liberty” of the scientist and sculptor was warranted.
...Reconstruction reflects a very strong adult individual with a combination of morphological features. The nose is very broad, similar to African or Australian. This strong development around the nose is not typical for Europoid but is similar to East African populations; however, Negroid nasal bones are flat while Kostenki XIV is strong. This find is a combination of features whose origin is different from other groups.
Thus, at Kostenki, we have both stone and bone tools and sculptures as well as houses, female figurines similar the "Venus of Willendorf", and the remains of Upper Paleolithic man. From Kostenki II we have a broad head and narrow brow and from Kostenki XIV we have a tall adult exhibiting a combination of strong physical features which differ from typical Europoid.
http://www.donsmaps.com/lioncamp.html
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