Which cave in Morocco contains early Homo sapiens fossils?

Jebel Irhoud is the Moroccan cave site that contains early Homo sapiens fossils. Located in Morocco’s Youssoufia Province, the site preserves hominin remains associated with Middle Stone Age tools and Pleistocene sediments.

The fossils were initially interpreted as Neanderthal-like when excavations began in 1961. Later research, including major excavations led by Jean-Jacques Hublin, identified the remains as early members of the Homo sapiens lineage. Thermoluminescence dating of heated flint tools placed the associated deposits at roughly 315,000 years old.

Jebel Irhoud changed the traditional picture of human evolution. Instead of modern humans emerging in one small region of East Africa around 200,000 years ago, the evidence suggests that Homo sapiens populations were spread across Africa much earlier. The fossils have some archaic features, especially elongated braincases, but their faces and teeth are closer to modern humans.

Jebel Irhoud is sometimes confused with the Cradle of Humankind or South Africa’s Sterkfontein Cave, but those sites are elsewhere in Africa and are associated with different fossil histories.