[4][5] Lack of adequate published material on the excavation [6] and the numerous Ibex bones (761) found led to this interpretation being questioned.

The skull is larger and taller and exhibited typical Neanderthal traits such as an occipital bun, oval-shaped foramen magnum, shovel-shaped incisors, supraorbital ridge, and the absence of a strong chin.

Statistical analysis of 27 linear measurements placed the Teshik-Tash skull and mandible outside the variation of the Neanderthals and associated it with Upper Paleolithic humans.

This data is suggested through consistent low levels of gene flow between Neanderthals and modern humans in the Near East.

[8] Prior to the discovery of the Teshik-Tash skull in 1938, it was thought that Neanderthals had not spread east enough to reach Central Asia.