Did modern humans come out Africa 120k years ago via Arabia?

[Ishtar]

....and carrying a toolkit.

Guys, sorry I haven't had time to pop in for a while, but I thought you might be interested in this new paper:

The Southern Route “Out of Africa”: Evidence for an Early Expansion
of Modern Humans into Arabia
Simon J. Armitage, Sabah A. Jasim, Anthony E. Marks, Adrian G. Parker, Vitaly I. Usik,
Hans-Peter Uerpmann*

Here's the abstract from Science.

One hundred twenty-five thousand years ago, when the Sahara desert was savanna, with plentiful water and game, a group of hominids made tools under the protection of a rock overhang in Jebel Faya, United Arab Emirates. A German-led team argues on page 453 of this week's issue of Science that these toolmakers were modern humans who may have crossed directly from Africa as part of a migration spreading across Europe, Asia, and Australia. Although most researchers agree that our species came out of Africa in one or more waves (see p. 392), those dates are more than 50,000 years earlier than most believe our ancestors left the continent.

The full text is available here
but you need to be a member.

However, I have a pdf with further information. If you'd like to PM me, I'll send it to you.

[Rokcet Scientist]

There have been dozens and dozens of waves of OOA hominids. Long, very long before HS even existed. Like e.g. HE, who left Africa and lived in Georgia, in the Caucasus, 1.8 MYA. A.k.a. Dmanisi Man. And countless other variants since. And they've all mixed, matched, and hybridized. I fail to see why, against the background of all those other, earlier waves, the 'timing' of when HS finally went OOA is such a big deal.


Dmanisi Man

[Minimalist]

I fixed your headline, Ish......1890 seemed way too recent.

[Ishtar]

I fixed your headline, Ish......1890 seemed way too recent.

Thank you, Min!

As my mother always says, "More haste, less speed!".

Rokcet, I can't quite believe I'm about to say this ... but ....ooooh, surely not ...gulp ... I find myself almost in full agreement with you.

<Phew, hand me the smelling salts, Min! >

[Minimalist]

He gets lucky once in a while!

[Digit]

I'm having the same problem Ish.

Roy.

[Minimalist]

Now THAT's scary!

[Digit]

Well you'll have to use your own sofa Min!

Roy.

[Rokcet Scientist]

Thinking this through, Dmanisi Man must have been the real Moses then! It all fits! He led his people out of Africa to the promised land, didn't he? Hey! So maybe the bible is true after all...!

OK, OK, so he led them through the promised land. Semantics!

[Barracuda]

Sorry, Rock, but I do not agree. The middle east was the orginal melting pot. We are still trying to figure out who was who there, and timelines.

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/mid ... 37989.html


Any information from this area could be potentially useful.

[Digit]

Don't tell me we're all Jewish, Uni will have a fit!

Roy.

[Minimalist]

Ironic, huh?

[Digit]

I doubt Uni will ever recover Min!

Roy.

[Rokcet Scientist]

Sorry, Rock, but I do not agree. The middle east was the orginal melting pot. We are still trying to figure out who was who there, and timelines.

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/mid ... 37989.html

Any information from this area could be potentially useful.

This unhinges it all, imo:

"[The lithics] look like new, like they were made yesterday."

[Barracuda]

I do not disagree with that specific. I do not know the paper really makes the case for 120KY ago.

Just disagree that the timing is not important. This area was where HS and HN first cohabited. 40KY more or less could make a lot of difference to how long they cohabited, what the relationship was, and how much they might have interbred.