Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 13-04-05

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Remains of eight Neanderthals discovered in Mani cave

[01] Remains of eight Neanderthals discovered in Mani cave

The results were published in the Journal of Human Evolution by a team led by professor Katerina Harvati from Germany's Eberhard Karls University. The multinational excavation team includes two members of the Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology and Speliology of Southern Greece, under the Ministry of Culture, Andreas Darlas and Eleni Psathi.

The cave's findings are dated between 100,000 and 39,000 years before the present era and lie in several layers, some of them 20 meters deep. Initial excavations were held between 1993 and 2006 by a team that included the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.

Remains found by Dr Harvati's team include 14 bones - some leg sections with toothmarks on them - 10 teeth, and a skull section. The analysis results correspond to the faunal and palynological, or particle, analyses of the site and show the residents there had a combined meat and vegetable diet.

The discovery, the researchers said in their report, "significantly expand the Neanderthal sample known from Greece. Together with the human specimens from Lakonis and Apidima, the Kalamakia human remains add to the growing evidence of a strong Neanderthal presence in the Mani region during the Late Pleistocene."

(Archive photo from excavations at the Theopetra cave in the Central Greek city of Trikala)

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