Manot Cave, where Neanderthals and humans made sweet love

If the skullcap fits: Hershkowitz with the partial skull found in Manot Cave. Researchers claim their find constitutes the earliest fossil evidence outside of Africa indicating that today’s human population originated in Africa and migrated from there more than 60,000 years ago. Photo: AFP (Inset) An interior view of stalagmites rising from the floor of Manot Cave, where the partial skull was discovered. Excavation is still ongoing within the cave. Photo: EPA

A cave in Israel may have been the place where modern humans and Neanderthals had a Mediterranean romance – if an ancient piece of skull is to be believed.

It was sealed off from humanity for 30,000 years before sewer workers accidentally shattered its high, vaulted ceiling and allowed Israeli searchers to rappel into its dark interior. Sweeping the cave’s damp walls and mineral spires with flashlights, the visitors discovered a trove of charcoal-smudged hearths, hundreds of animal bones and Stone Age tools.