JEBEL IRHOUD (Jebel Ighoud)
LOCATION
Solution cavity in a barytes mine near Chemaia, about
60 km E of Safi, Morocco.DISCOVERY
M. ben Fatmi, 1961 (Irhoud 1); M. ben Fatmi and C.
Coon, 1963 (Irhoud 2); E. Ennouchi, 1968 (Irhoud 3);
J. Tixier and R. Bayle des Hermens, 1969 (Irhoud 4).
MATERIAL
Broken but fairly complete edentulous cranium, lack-
ing part of skull base (Irhoud 1); braincase lacking
most of base (Irhoud 2); broken juvenile (ca. 8-year-
old) mandible (Irhoud 3); juvenile humerus (Irhoud 4).DATING AND STRATIGRAPHIC CONTEXT
Fissure fill in Precambrian limestone; all four ho-
minids were apparently found near the bottom of the
fissure (which was originally a small subterranean so-
lution cavity that had filled from above), although
precise provenance is recorded only for Irhoud 4
(Hublin et al., 1987). Fauna from the deposit suggests
an early Late Pleistocene age (Hublin et al., 1987),
and ESR age estimates on three teeth taken from just
above the Irhoud 4 specimen range from 90 to 125 Ka
(Grun and Stringer, 1991). Griin and Stringer note
that variations in uranium concentration in the matrii
suggest a fairly long depositional history for the cavity
(covering at least isotope stages 5 and 6). If so, the
crania (if really from the bottom of the sedimentarypile) might be considerably older than these dates
suggest, for a stage 6 age would place them in the
130-190 Ka interval.ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXT
A fairly abundant Levalloiso-Mousterian lithic in-
dustry has been recovered at Jebel Irhoud (Ennouchi,
1962); Balout (1965) characterizes it simply as
Mousterian, as do Hublin et al. (1987), who remark
that the industry “would not be surprising in a Euro-
pean site” (p. 115).PREVIOUS DESCRIPTIONS AND ANALYSES
The Irhoud fossils were originally described by En-
nouchi (e.g., 1962, 1963, 1969), who considered them
to have Neanderthal affinities, as did Mann and
Trinkaus (1973). Others have since rejected this com-
parison (e.g., Howells, 1975; Stringer, 1978; Santa
Luca, 1978; Hublin and Tillier, 1981). Nobody has
expressed any doubt that all of the Irhoud hominids
belong to the same taxon. Griin and Stringer are
probably reflecting a majority opinion when they de-
scribe them as “morphologically archaic, although...
foreshadowing modern humans” (1991: 184). Hol-
loway (2000) gives a cranial capacity for Jebel Irhoud
1 of 1305 ml.MORPHOLOGY
Two adult crania and one juvenile mandible. Since
the two crania could not be compared side by side97