On the age of Border Cave hominids

Abstract

Cited evidence suggests that Border Cave hominids 1-3 and 5 are associated with MSA phases 1-2 and date back to c. 90 000-110 000 yr B.P. These remains are fully modern in terms of morphology, and incipient Khoisan features are seemingly present in the case of BC1. This evidence is taken to mean that truly ancestral forms of our own species probably range back into the late Middle Pleistocene of sub-Saharan Africa. Such a scenario implies that previous phologenetic reconstructions have been based on only the final quarter or so of modern man's evolutionary history.