Pierre-Francois PUECH and Bernard PUECH

The Zuttiyeh specimen from Israel, the most likely candidate Homo heidelbergensis from Western Asia, was discovered in Israel on

the western shore of Lake Tiberias  by Francis A J Turville-Petre in 1925.

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It consists of a complete frontal bone ©PF/B. Puech

and the right lateral profil of the face. ©PF/B. Puech

Dated  between 200 & 500 ka, it can be compared to Arago 21 discovered by Henry and Marie-Antoinette de Lumley at Tautavel, France.

Homo heidelbergensis, nomen formulated for the Mauer jaw by  Schoetensack in 1908,  may be considered as the taxon  ancestral of Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens (see Mounier and al. for discussion).