Carmel Mountains, present-day Israel. Small groups of Homo sapiens live in the Skhul and Qafzeh caves. In nearby caves just a few kilometers away, the Tabun and Kebara Caves, small groups of Neanderthals lived 55,000 years later. According to Svante Paabo, this is evidence that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals may have come into contact in the Middle East before spreading to Asia, Europe, Oceania, and the Americas. Here in the Middle East, they interbred, leaving 2% of Neanderthal genes in human DNA.
