Joseph Layden, Author of The Unnamed Bears Favor
Neanderthals may have lived in North Africa. The recently announced 300,000 year old anatomically modern humans were originally called Neanderthals because they exhibit several features in common with the species. There are some alleged Neanderthal burials near the horn of Africa.
70,000 years ago, a heavily Neanderthal introgressed population of Homo Sapiens invaded Africa, almost certainly due to the invasion of the Middle East by Neanderthals. The Neanderthals drove homo sapiens out of SW Asia, and they would not re-enter until 45 thousand years ago. The groups that show up in Africa around 70,000 years ago have some Neanderthal features, are hyper robust, and they brought Y Haplogroup DE and E into Africa.
There is no undisputed “pure” Neanderthal fossil from Africa, but there are some on the very border of Africa and Arabia. Move the site a mile or two and you’d be in Africa, so it’s kind of silly to imagine they had an invisible barrier there.
Pure Neanderthals didn’t do well in Africa because of the heat and malaria.
Also, the last European Neanderthal died on the Rock of Gibraltar 21,000 years ago. Less than 3000 years later, a group of Neanderthal hybrids called the Ibero-Maurusians suddenly appeared right across the straight in Morocco. They are said to show even more Neanderthal traits than Cro-Magnons and the Portuguese hybrids.
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