Description : Dederiyeh Cave is a cave in Syria in which systematic excavations have take place since 1987. The cave is located 60 kilometers northwest of Aleppo in the Afrin District, on the left bank of a wadi, at an altitude of 450 meter. Two Neanderthal children were found in the cave, in 1993 and 1997-1998, both of which showed evidence that they were buried. Tentative excavations took place in 1989 and 1990, and more serious research started in 1993; it quickly yielded the remains of a Neanderthal child, about two years old, an almost complete set of remains. A second (partial) skeleton was found in 1997-1998, in a pit of 70cm by 50 cm, filled in with fine brown dirt in which flint were found. The researchers concluded that this also was intentionally buried. In all the remains of up to fifteen individuals have been found, in the Middle Paleolithic layers of the cave. More than half of them were children.
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