When did humans begin to leave Africa to go to Asia, Middle East?

Question

thanks!

Answer 1

Fossil and other skeletal remains point to a date of around a million years old for the first migrations out of Africa. Homo erectus does appear in Europe, for instance. But the diaspora certainly occurred earlier than 50,000 years ago. 200,000 is a nice, round date that I came across all the time. But dental and DNA evidence seem to point to an Asian population that is much older than the larger fossil and skeletal record have suggested.

That's the way of this kind of inquiry. When the different kinds of evidence match up, you know you're on to something. When they don't, either one or more of them is lacking, or your method is. If the DNA evidence were good all by itself, we could have about closed the book on this already.

Answer 2

Some time between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago. They reached Australia about 50,000 years ago; this could have been achieved in only a couple of thousand years by following the shorelines. Genetic testing indicates this as the likely time of divergence from an original population.

Answer 3

To back up JimZ's point, there is a recent article suggesting that   teeth analysis indicates a much more fluid migration pattern than simply a one way migration out of Africa that has become popular but is fundamentally illogical.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/...

Another article finds evidence of modern humans in India 74,000 years ago and were not likely as devastated by the Toba  eruption as was indicated by certain genetics studies.  I never did buy into the Toba theory but found it interesting.  Evolution drives concentration of some genes by definition and I don't think humans are necessarily representative of normal patterns of evolution.  We have the ability to invent new technology that would allow one small group to expand its population massively.  That also applies to military and cultural behaviors.   Expansion of population from some new invention or change in culture could have happened many times and it makes sense just from common sense.  If modern humans were in India 74,000 years ago, it throws the whole single migration theory into question.  Cultural changes could easily account for the so called lack of symbolic artifacts that are the basis for much of the "evidence" of our migration patterns.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/volca...

Answer 4

Homo habilis evolved in Africa 2 million years ago and is considered the first species of the genus homo. A descendent of Homo habilis known as Homo erectus or "upright man" is thought to be the first hominid to migrate out of Africa at least 1.5 million years ago. Erectus is believed to have left Africa during the warm periods between ice ages. An occasional phenomenon know as the Sahara pump theory, during which the Sahara desert receives significant rainfall, allows African flora and African fauna to penetrate the otherwise arid Middle East. It is believed that during one such period some Homo erectus migrated out to ultimately spread all over Europe and Asia and dominate the world for the next 1 million years. Fossils of homo erectus include Peking man from China and Java man from Indonesia.

Scientists believe modern humans first appeared in Africa less than 200,000 years ago. One of the reasons they believe this is that the oldest known remains of modern humans have been found in Africa and nowhere else. The Omo remains found near the Omo river in Ethiopia have been dated to 130,000 - 195,000 years ago and are the oldest fossil evidence of anatomically modern humans.

Humans did attempt on one occasion to leave Africa through the Middle East. Fossils of modern humans were found in a cave in Israel at Qafzeh and have been dated to 100,000 years ago. However these humans seem to have either gone extinct or retreated back to Africa 80,000 - 70,000 years ago, possibly replaced by south bound Neanderthals escaping the colder regions of ice age Europe.

Answer 5

This is a difficult question as you need to define human.  If Homo sapiens is the species of question the date of 50-60,000 years age works well, the population quickly spread across southern Asia to Australia and then began migrating north.  If you are not confining your definition of human to H. sapiens but to the genus Homo then you have a multitude of answers.  There are multiple migrations of multiple species.  Also have the lumper/splitter issue, whether you consider H. erectus and H. ergaster one or two species.  It can be very difficult but in this case the date of about 1.2million to 1 million years is common.

Answer 6

It is interesting and revealling that 50,000 years is a magic number.  This is because it is the effective age of carbon dating.  In fact they really don't know.  There are tools in Asia that are a million years old.  They match those in Africa.  The "Out of Africa" religion in modern Paleoanthropolgy indicates that people moved one way out of Africa for a million years without any of them considering to turn around.  Those tools I mentioned earlier were wielded by hominids that wouldn't welcome these so called African's.  In my opinion, they lived in Asia and Africa at the same time for at least a million years and almost certainly moved back and forth as did other animal species.  It is impossible to say, based on the scarce fossil evidence to say if Asia or Africa (or both) was the dominant place for human evolution.  Currently there is an African bias and I think it is a bias missing good evidence.

Answer 7

If Neanderthal lived in Europe for over 165 thousand years you have to do the arithmetic. They went into Spain and Europe first. Java man went into Asia and the China areas.  

    There's theories that there was two different migrations of Neanderthal in Europe. This being that an mini ice age came and went, the Neanderthal followed the ice sheet South and ended up along the Southern Spanish Coast then, followed it back into Europe again as it melted.

   Modern Homo Sapien may have traveled in Europe 50 or 60 thousand years ago but, we have to give credit to Neanderthal also for his travels.

    Man was in Europe far longer then 50 to 60 thousand years ago. This would be right for Homo Sapien.

Answer 8

AFTER the peoples in western Europe developed their culture.

Answer 9

Bravozula is partially right in that several out of Africa migrations took place.. First would have been HomoErectus, then early Homo Sapien about 60,000 yrs ago. Another Sapien migration about 40,000 yrs ago. We don't have any compelling evidence that more than a trickle of sapiens, if that, migrated back to sub Saharan Africa from the ME or beyond.  Chuckle, regardless of the stories some anthropologists like to tell, DNA evidence simply shows no significant migration back to Sub Saharan Africa.