700,000-Year-Old Human Remains Found in Cave in Iran

  • Christopher Enolpe
  • June 11th, 2025
Alamut Castle in Qazvin Province, near the site of the 700,000-year-old human remains discovered in Qaleh Kurd Cave
Alamut Castle, located in Iran’s Qazvin Province, stands near Qaleh Kurd Cave—the site where 700,000-year-old human remains were recently discovered. Credit: Ninara / CC BY 2.0

Archaeologists have discovered human remains in a cave in northern Iran that may date back as far as 700,000 years, making them the oldest evidence of human habitation ever recorded on the Iranian plateau.

The remains were found in the Cave of Qaleh Kurd, near the city of Avaj in Qazvin Province. Iranian archaeologist Hamid Vahdatinasab and French archaeologist Dr. Gilles Bréon led the excavation. The discovery adds to growing evidence of early human activity in the region.

Deeper layers point to early habitation

According to Vahdatinasab, initial dating results indicate that the cave’s upper layers are approximately 455,000 years old. The remains were uncovered in lower layers, about one and a half meters beneath that level.

“In the worst-case scenario, the age of these lower layers is estimated to be between 600,000 and 700,000 years,” he said.

If confirmed, these remains would represent the earliest known human presence in Iran and one of the oldest in western Asia. Earlier dating already placed the site at over 452,000 years old.

Stone tools and animal bones support findings

Excavators also found stone tools and animal bones in the same layers. These findings suggest early humans lived and hunted in the cave long before the appearance of Neanderthals.

Researchers believe that ancient species such as Homo heidelbergensis or Homo erectus used the cave. “This time period is not related to Neanderthals, as Neanderthals appeared a maximum of 400,000 years ago,” Vahdatinasab said.

Previous discoveries included Neanderthal remains

The Iranian-French team made several major discoveries at the site in past excavation seasons. These included two Neanderthal teeth, dating back roughly 175,000 and 180,000 years.

In 2019, a Neanderthal child’s milk tooth was uncovered, estimated to be between 155,000 and 175,000 years old. It is now kept at the Qazvin Museum and was, until recently, the oldest human remains found in the country.

New dating results still pending

The team has reached even deeper layers during its third and fourth excavation seasons, though dating results for those areas are still pending. Vahdatinasab said the dating process takes time due to the long backlog at specialized laboratories and the care required in preparing samples.

A sixth season is planned, with hopes that new finds will confirm even older dates. There is a strong possibility that layers deeper than those already studied could push our timeline back further, the team explained.

Clues to human migration routes

Researchers say the cave could help trace the path of early human migration between the Middle East and Asia. They compare it to the Dmanisi site in Georgia, where human skulls dating back 1.77 million years have been found.

“This gives hope that Georgian humans passed through Iran,” the team noted. “Perhaps evidence of that will be found in Iran.”

Vahdatinasab, who has taught archaeology at Tarbiat Modares University since 2008, is also the author of The Origin of Man, a 2014 book about human evolution.

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