Frontal bone morphometrics of southwest Asian Pleistocene hominids

Morphometric relationships among late middle and early late Pleistocene fossil hominids from southwestern Asia are examined utilizing multivariate analyses of frontal bones. Particular emphasis is placed on assessing the interaction of size and shape factors in determining relationships among these specimens. Results of these analyses can be summarized in five points. First, techniques which maximize pattern recognition based primarily on shape factors provide the most reliable information pertinent to phylogenetic relationships among these hominids. Second, the Zuttiyeh specimen does not exhibit a greater similarity to the early "modern" Skhu-l/Qafzeh hominids than to Levantine Neandertals. Third, the Shanidar Neandertals do not cluster closely with Levantine archaic humans. Fourth, the Mousterian-associated Skhu-l/Qafzeh hominids exhibit distinct similarities to archaic humans, but the Skhu-l hominids give no unequivocal indication of being "hybrids" between the Qafzeh people and Neandertals. Finally, clear patterns of change occur in frontal bone morphology from the early "modern" (Mousterian-associated) Skhu-l/Qafzeh hominids to early Upper Paleolithic-associated humans from the Levant.