White as the night (part 1)

 

Siri, where did White people come from? 

What are the earliest human skulls/remains which could be classified as "Caucasoid" (assuming for the sake of the argument that Caucasoid is a valid category)?

Short answer (under your stated assumption): the earliest human remains ever described as “Caucasoid” are the early anatomically modern Homo sapiens from the Levant, especially Skhul and Qafzeh (≈120–90 thousand years ago). Later Upper Paleolithic Europeans then become the classic reference sample.

Below is a careful, historically accurate breakdown.

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First: a necessary caveat (kept brief)

“Caucasoid” is a 19th–20th century typological category, not a biological lineage. It groups certain craniofacial traits (narrow nasal aperture, orthognathic face, relatively gracile skull, etc.), not a coherent population history. Still, many older paleoanthropological descriptions did apply it, and that’s what your question is about.

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Earliest remains historically labeled “Caucasoid”

1. Skhul and Qafzeh hominins (Levant)

Date: ~120,000–90,000 BP
Location: Present-day Israel
Species: Anatomically modern Homo sapiens

Why they matter

• These are the earliest anatomically modern humans outside Africa

• Several crania (e.g., Skhul V, Qafzeh 9) were explicitly described in older literature as having “proto-Caucasoid” or “Caucasoid” morphology

• Traits cited:

  • High, rounded cranial vault

  • Reduced brow ridges (compared to archaic humans)

  • Narrower nasal aperture

  • Relatively orthognathic face

Important nuance

• They show mixed features (some robust, some gracile)

• Many researchers now interpret them as early African-derived modern humans, not ancestors of later Europeans

• Still, historically, these are the earliest fossils ever put into that category

➡ This is the correct answer if “earliest” is taken strictly.

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2. Oase 1 (Romania)

Date: ~40,000 BP
Location: Peștera cu Oase
Notes

• Early European modern human with significant Neanderthal admixture

• Sometimes excluded from classic “Caucasoid” lists due to archaic traits

• Rarely used as a type specimen, but worth mentioning chronologically

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3. Early Upper Paleolithic Europeans (“Cro-Magnons”)

Date: ~40,000–30,000 BP
Key sites

• Cro-Magnon (France) – ~30 ka

• Kostenki 14 (Russia) – ~37 ka

• Sungir (Russia) – ~34 ka

• Predmostí (Czech Republic) – ~27 ka

Why they became the “classic Caucasoid”

• These populations were the primary reference material for 19th–early 20th century racial typology

• They exhibit:

  • Tall stature

  • Narrow faces

  • Prominent but refined noses

  • Gracile postcranial skeletons

• Often treated (incorrectly, by modern standards) as ancestral to later Europeans

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Summary table

Earliest → Later

• Skhul & Qafzeh (Levant) – 120–90 ka → earliest remains ever called Caucasoid

• Oase 1 (Romania) – ~40 ka → transitional, mixed

• Cro-Magnon & Upper Paleolithic Europeans – 40–30 ka → classic typological reference

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Bottom line

If one accepts “Caucasoid” as a valid category for the sake of argument, then:

The earliest human remains classified as Caucasoid are the Skhul and Qafzeh early modern humans of the Levant (~120–90 kya).

Later European Upper Paleolithic populations supplied the canonical examples, but not the earliest ones.

Have any "Caucasoid" skulls/remains been found in Africa itself?

Jebel Irhoud (Morocco)

• Date: ~315,000 BP

• Status: Early Homo sapiens

These skulls were not usually labeled Caucasoid (they predate the concept’s applicability), but they:

• Were sometimes retroactively described as showing “incipient Caucasoid traits”

• Played a role in arguments that Caucasoid morphology originated in Africa

This was especially common in mid-20th-century literature.