Jebel Irhoud

Jebel Irhoud (Arabic: جبل إيغود, Moroccan Arabic: žbəl iġud) or Adrar n Ighoud (Standard Moroccan Tamazight: ⴰⴷⵔⴰⵔ ⵏ ⵉⵖⵓⴷ, romanized: Adrar n Iɣud), is an archaeological site in Morocco located just north of the town of Tlet Ighoud in Youssoufia Province, approximately 50 km (30 mi) south-east of the city of Safi. It is noted for the hominin fossils that have been found there since the discovery of the site in 1961. Originally thought to be Neanderthals, the specimens have since been assigned to Homo sapiens and, as reported in 2017, have been dated to a "weighted average age" of 315,000 years ago. This makes the remains by far the earliest known examples of H. sapiens, and suggests that rather than arising in East Africa approximately 200,000 years ago, modern humans were present across the length of Africa 100,000 years earlier.