The primary objective of this research is to evaluate the pattern of the Late Pleistocene human fossil record in Southwest Asia, and to relate this pattern to the broader issue of modern human origins. The study proposes to provide a systematic descriptive and comparative analysis of the morphology of the frontal bone of archaic, early anatomically modern, and Upper Paleolithic hominids. Data from Middle and Late Pleistocene hominids in Europe and Africa will be used as a comparative sample. Scientists currently recognize two contradictory models of modern human origins: long-term regional continuity (the candelabra model) and monocentric origin (the "out-of-Africa" model). Results of this analysis should help to clarify the relative importance of local continuity and extraneous influences in the emergence of moderns humans in Southwest Asia, and thus provide evidence for one or the other of these models.
