Tabun and Kebara Caves, Carmel Mountains, present-day Israel. Small groups of Neanderthals live in these caves. 55,000 years earlier, small groups of Homo sapiens lived in the Skhul and Qafzeh caves, located just a few kilometers away. 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. They interbred here in the Middle East, leaving 2% of Neanderthal genes in human DNA.
