Palmyra, The Origins
**Ancient Human Discoveries in the Palmyra Region**
Archaeological findings near Palmyra reveal some of the most ancient human dwellings in the Near East. In 1996, a Syrian-Swiss team discovered a *Homo erectus* skull fragment at the Nadawiyah Ain Askar site in El-Kowm, north of Palmyra. Dated to around 450,000 years ago, this parietal bone, known as “Nadawiyeh Man,” is the oldest human skeletal find in the region and the first positively identified human in Syria.
This discovery raises questions about the relationship between Africa and Asia during this period and the Near East’s role in human migration to Asia and Europe. In the same year, a Syrian-French team at Umm el-Tlel uncovered a Neanderthal skull fragment from the Mousterian period (Middle Paleolithic).
In 2005, a team from the University of Basel found over forty fossilized bone fragments of a mammoth camel (*Camelus moreli*) at the Hummal site in El-Kowm. Dating back 150,000 years, this species was twice the size of modern camels and was found alongside human remains, offering insights into early human coexistence with megafauna.
While stone tools suggest human presence in Syria as early as one million years ago, the earliest human remains date to around 450,000 BC. These discoveries enhance our understanding of human evolution and migration, underscoring the Near East’s role as a crossroads for ancient populations.
