A multivariate study of the Petralona skull

The Petralona skull from Greece has been generally accepted as an Upper Pleistocene variant of Neanderthal Man. It was included in a series of multivariate analyses performed by the author on cranial measurements of Pleistocene hominids. The results of the Mahalanobis D² analyses suggest that Petralona is cranially similar to the Neanderthals, but facially is distinct. Overall it resembles the Broken Hill and Djebel Ighoud skulls most closely but there are features of resemblance to Homo erectus material. The results of these analyses support recent suggestions that the Petralona material is of greater antiquity than the Upper Pleistocence.