The Prehistoric People of Palestine*

Abstract

THE fossil remains of the earliest inhabitants of Palestine were discovered in caves of Mount Carmel by an expedition led by Miss Dorothy Garrod, and financed by two societies—the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem and the American School of Prehistoric Research. The early Palestinians were quite unlike any people now living, but are of profound interest, because, if not our actual ancestors, they are certainly near akin to the human stock which in the course of time gave the world its Caucasian or white inhabitants. Hitherto our search for the fossil ancestor of the white man has been in vain. Everyone is familiar with the place held by Palestine in our conception of human life at the dawn of history ; the excavations made at Mount Carmel by Miss Garrod are destined to give that small country in the East an equally important place in our picture of man's prehistoric world.