Facial Reconstruction of a 37,000-Year-Old Man from Egypt In... 1980, excavations of a hill near the village of Nazlet Khater in Upper Egypt uncovered two burials. The first skeleton was poorly preserved, but the second, located on the summit of the hill, survived almost intact - only the feet were missing. The grave was shallow and had been eroded by Nile flooding, causing the skull to become exposed on the surface. The skeleton of an adult male was found lying on his back, accompanied by a large flint axe. The Nazlet Khater 2 skeleton is one of the few complete human skeleton from the Early Upper Paleolithic of North Africa. The remains belonged to a man aged approximately 20-29 years who stood around 160 cm tall. Not far from the hill was a flint quarry where prehistoric people extracted raw material. Evidence of intensive mining activity includes trenches, shafts, and narrow tunnels no more than 50 cm high, apparently dug around the same period as the burials. The stone axe found in the Nazlet Khater 2 grave was probably used for quarrying, as identical tools have been discovered in the ancient mines. The skeletal pathologies are particularly revealing in this regard. Multiple injuries and degenerative changes in the spine and limbs indicate extremely heavy physical labor, typical of mining activities and the regular lifting of heavy loads. Severe arthritis of the cervical vertebrae suggests that this man habitually carried heavy burdens on his head or with the aid of a forehead strap, as some traditional peoples do today. Damage to the arms indicates extensive use of percussion tools, especially with the right hand. He also had healed fractures of the hands. Evidently, he began performing strenuous labor in adolescence, while his bones were still developing. Physically, Nazlet Khater 2 differs from other African and European Upper Paleolithic humans, although they share a number of archaic features. His primary morphological characteristics are clearly equatorial, resembling those of the Epipaleolithic inhabitants of Nubia as well as the South African remains from Springbok Flats and Kalomo, which were once considered very ancient (Pinhasi & Semal, 2000) but are now known to be much more recent. The large cranial vault of Nazlet Khater 2 is typical of Upper Paleolithic humans. The expansion of the braincase in its lower portion is particularly archaic, as are the highly placed temporal lines, resulting in a very narrow minimum frontal breadth relative to the maximum frontal breadth (although the minimum breadth is average in absolute terms and the maximum breadth is large). This configuration likely reflects the powerful development of the chewing musculature, which is also evident in the structure of the mandible. The pronounced brow ridges and rather sloping forehead are likewise typical of Upper Paleolithic people. The shape of the upper margin of the temporal squama - strongly convex in the front but flattened behind and lacking a parietal notch - may be regarded as primitive, though it could also be described as “Bushmanoid,” since it occurs among San populations and on the skull from Fish Hoek. The overall facial form of Nazlet Khater 2 is relatively low and especially broad across the cheekbones, with a well-developed canine fossa and maxillary notch, while the broad upper jaw exhibits noticeable alveolar prognathism. Compared with many Upper Paleolithic and all ancient African skulls, Nazlet Khater 2 is distinguished by a moderately high face (despite its great breadth) and by very large, rounded, and relatively high eye orbits. Unusual for Africa is his mesorrhine nose - a nose of intermediate width - resulting from a not particularly wide nasal aperture combined with a very great nasal height. The nasal bones are equatorial: straight, nearly vertical, and rounded in cross-section. The alveolar process of the upper jaw is flattened in the front and bends markedly at the level of the canines, a distinctly archaic trait. In terms of mandibular features, Nazlet Khater 2 is fully anatomically modern, although the jaw is exceptionally large and robust, as is typical of the earliest Homo sapiens. (Antropogenez, S.V. Drobyshevsky, 2010)show more
