Paleoanthropology in Greece: Recent findings and interpretations

Abstract

Greece lies at the crossroads between Europe, Asia, and Africa, and represents a logical gateway through which early human populations might have repeatedly passed on the way to and from Europe. It also represents one of the three European Mediterranean peninsulas which acted as a refugium for fauna, flora and, very likely, human populations during glacial times. Evidence from this region is therefore essential in order to test hypotheses about the course of human evolution in Europe. Despite the importance of the region, paleoanthropological research has until recently been relatively neglected. In recent years, however, renewed research efforts have produced new human fossils from Greece, recovered from excavated contexts. This chapter reviews the Greek human fossil evidence in the context of broader questions in European paleoanthropology.