Neanderthals existed in the Balkan region 33,000 years ago and near Gibraltar up to 24,000 years ago .

Way before that time what is now Malta had long ago became a island archipelago separated from the Italian- Sicilian land ridge that extended to what is now Gozo and Malta.

At about 5 million years ago tectonic activity caused a re-opening of the Gibraltar straits filling up the dry Mediterranean basin and isolating the Maltese Islands from the mainland of the Italian/Sicilian land ridge.

Malta was an island when neanderthals existed, the question is did they come to Malta (or were they always in Malta); as they were a lot more intelligent than they are given credit for.

Maltese (local) Pre- Neolithic people mixed with Neanderthals.

Based on the fairly new theory making the rounds that modern man interbred with Neanderthals (or vice versa).

http://dienekes.blogspot.ca/2012/10/let-me-enter-following-points-which.html

[Daphne – Malta didn’t exist when Neanderthals were around.]

I wrote that tongue in cheek, the BBW ( Big Beautiful Women} gene thing reference was the tip off.

But I doubt that pre Neolithic genes or Neolithic genes died out completely in Malta as I believe that some the modern Maltese population still has remnants of these older islanders’ DNA.

[Daphne – Pre-Neolithic?]

Some of the pre- Arriva bus drivers certainly convinced me of that.

*BTW, on a serious note; what happened to the extremely large human skulls unearthed in Malta with odd number of(extra?) molars that use to be on exhibit in the Malta museum up until the 1950s?

I did find a photo of these skulls taken in the 1930s at the Malta Museum ..somewhere on the internet awhile back.

Ken il malti is out of his depth here, commenting on the genetic makeup of the local population in pre-Neolithic times.

He would first have to establish, before declaring what was common in their genes, that such a community in fact existed.

Mur zomm il-Bastjan kieku sar hekk!

She has the Maltese BBW genes.
Very common on the island since pre-neolithic times.

[Daphne – There is no continuity between Malta’s Neolithic population and today’s. There wasn’t even any continuity between the Neolithic population and that of the Bronze Age. They were different people entirely. Malta’s population is pretty new – not much more than a thousand years, really, from Sicily and North Africa, mainly.]

Interesting observation.

Where’s Stitching?

My word, she’s getting fatter by the minute.