Genetic evidence of an early exit of Homo sapiens sapiens from Africa through eastern Africa

10.1038/70550 ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 437-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lluís Quintana-Murci ◽  
Ornella Semino ◽  
Hans-J. Bandelt ◽  
Giuseppe Passarino ◽  
Ken McElreavey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Genetic Evidence ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Early Exit

scholarly journals Directional changes in Levallois core technologies between Eastern Africa, Arabia, and the Levant during MIS 5

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
James Blinkhorn ◽  
Huw S. Groucutt ◽  
Eleanor M. L. Scerri ◽  
Michael D. Petraglia ◽  
Simon Blockley
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Environmental Parameters ◽  
Detailed Comparison ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Reduction Activity ◽  
Core Technology ◽  
Geographic Expansion ◽  
First Time ◽  
Mis 5

AbstractMarine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5, ~ 130 to 71 thousand years ago, was a key period for the geographic expansion of Homo sapiens, including engagement with new landscapes within Africa and dispersal into Asia. Occupation of the Levant by Homo sapiens in MIS 5 is well established, while recent research has documented complementary evidence in Arabia. Here, we undertake the first detailed comparison of Levallois core technology from eastern Africa, Arabia, and the Levant during MIS 5, including multiple sites associated with Homo sapiens fossils. We employ quantitative comparisons of individual artefacts that provides a detailed appraisal of Levallois reduction activity in MIS 5, thereby enabling assessment of intra- and inter-assemblage variability for the first time. Our results demonstrate a pattern of geographically structured variability embedded within a shared focus on centripetal Levallois reduction schemes and overlapping core morphologies. We reveal directional changes in core shaping and flake production from eastern Africa to Arabia and the Levant that are independent of differences in geographic or environmental parameters. These results are consistent with a common cultural inheritance between these regions, potentially stemming from a shared late Middle Pleistocene source in eastern Africa.

scholarly journals Upper Pleistocene Human Dispersals out of Africa: A Review of the Current State of the Debate

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanuel Beyin
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Upper Pleistocene ◽  
Current State ◽  
Human Colonization ◽  
Source Populations

Although there is a general consensus on African origin of early modern humans, there is disagreement about how and when they dispersed to Eurasia. This paper reviews genetic and Middle Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic archaeological literature from northeast Africa, Arabia, and the Levant to assess the timing and geographic backgrounds of Upper Pleistocene human colonization of Eurasia. At the center of the discussion lies the question of whether eastern Africa alone was the source of Upper Pleistocene human dispersals into Eurasia or were there other loci of human expansions outside of Africa? The reviewed literature hints at two modes of early modern human colonization of Eurasia in the Upper Pleistocene: (i) from multiple Homo sapiens source populations that had entered Arabia, South Asia, and the Levant prior to and soon after the onset of the Last Interglacial (MIS-5), (ii) from a rapid dispersal out of East Africa via the Southern Route (across the Red Sea basin), dating to ~74–60 kya.

Human responses to hydroclimate fluctuations over the last 200 kyr in Ethiopia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Schäbitz ◽  
Verena Foerster ◽  
Asfawossen Asrat ◽  
Andrew S. Cohen ◽  
Melissa S. Chapot ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Human Mobility ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Southern Ethiopia ◽  
Ethiopian Rift ◽  
Mobility Patterns

<p><span>Humans </span><span>have been adapting to more demanding habitats in the course of their evolutionary history</span><span>. </span><span>Nevertheless</span><span>, environmental changes coupled with overpopulation naturally limit competition for resources. In order to find such limits, reconstructions of climate and </span><span>population changes </span><span>are increasingly used for the continent of our origin, Africa.</span> <span>However, </span><span>continuous and high-resolution records of climate-human interactions are still scarce. </span></p><p><span>Using a 280 m sediment core from Chew Bahir*, a wide tectonic basin in southern Ethiopia,</span> <span>we reconstruct the paleoenvironmental conditions during the development of <em>Homo sapiens.</em> The complete multiproxy record of the composite core covers the last ~600 ka </span><span>, allowing tests of hypotheses about the influence of climate change on human evolution and technological innovation from the Late Acheulean to the Middle/Late Stone Age, and on dispersal within and out of Africa</span><span>. </span></p><p><span>Here we present results from the uppermost 100 meters of the Chew Bahir core, spanning the last 200 kiloyears (ka). </span><span>The record shows two modes of environmental change that are associated with two types of human mobility. The first mode is a long-term trend towards a more arid climate, overlain by precession-driven wet-dry alternation. Through comparison with the archaeological record, humid episodes appear to have led to the opening of ‘green’ networks between favourable habitats and thus to increased human mobility on a regional scale. The second mode of environmental change resembles millennial-scale Dansgaard-Oeschger and Heinrich events, which seem to coincide with enhanced vertical mobility from the Ethiopian rift to the highlands, especially in the time frame between ~65–21 ka BP. The coincidence of climate change and human mobility patterns help to define the limiting conditions for early <em>Homo sapiens</em> in eastern Africa.</span></p><p><span>___________________</span></p><p><span>*</span> <span>cored in the context of HSPDP (<em>Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project</em>) and CRC </span><span>(<em>Collaborative Research </em><em>Centre</em>) 806 “<em>Our way to Europe</em>”</span></p>

scholarly journals Explanations of variability in Middle Stone Age stone tool assemblage composition and raw material use in Eastern Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Blinkhorn ◽  
M. Grove
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Population History ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Assemblage Composition

AbstractThe Middle Stone Age (MSA) corresponds to a critical phase in human evolution, overlapping with the earliest emergence of Homo sapiens as well as the expansions of these populations across and beyond Africa. Within the context of growing recognition for a complex and structured population history across the continent, Eastern Africa remains a critical region to explore patterns of behavioural variability due to the large number of well-dated archaeological assemblages compared to other regions. Quantitative studies of the Eastern African MSA record have indicated patterns of behavioural variation across space, time and from different environmental contexts. Here, we examine the nature of these patterns through the use of matrix correlation statistics, exploring whether differences in assemblage composition and raw material use correlate to differences between one another, assemblage age, distance in space, and the geographic and environmental characteristics of the landscapes surrounding MSA sites. Assemblage composition and raw material use correlate most strongly with one another, with site type as well as geographic and environmental variables also identified as having significant correlations to the former, and distance in time and space correlating more strongly with the latter. By combining time and space into a single variable, we are able to show the strong relationship this has with differences in stone tool assemblage composition and raw material use, with significance for exploring the impacts of processes of cultural inheritance on variability in the MSA. A significant, independent role for terrain roughness for explaining variability in stone tool assemblages highlights the importance of considering the impacts of mobility on structuring the archaeological record of the MSA of Eastern Africa.

scholarly journals Age of the oldest Homo sapiens from eastern Africa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Céline Vidal ◽  
Christine Lane ◽  
Asfawossen Asrat ◽  
Dan Barfod ◽  
Emma Tomlinson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Explosive Eruption ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Ethiopian Rift ◽  
Tephra Layer ◽  
Main Ethiopian Rift ◽  
Minimum Age ◽  
Geochemical Analyses ◽  
Human Fossils

Abstract Efforts to date the oldest modern human fossils in East Africa, from Omo-Kibish and Herto in Ethiopia, have drawn on a variety of chronometric evidence, including 40Ar/39Ar ages of stratigraphically-associated tuffs. The generally-accepted ages for these fossils are ca. 196 thousand years (ka) for the Kibish Omo I and ca. 160-155 ka for the Herto hominins. However, stratigraphic relationships and tephra correlations that underpin these estimates have been challenged. Here, we report new geochemical analyses that link the Kamoya Hominin Site (KHS) Tuff, which conclusively overlies the Kibish Formation member containing Omo I, with a major explosive eruption of Shala volcano in the Main Ethiopian Rift. By dating the proximal deposits of this eruption, we obtain a new minimum age for the Omo fossils of 212±16 ka. Contrary to previous arguments, we also show that the KHS Tuff does not correlate with another widespread tephra layer, the Wadaido Vitric Tuff (WAVT), and therefore cannot anchor a minimum age for the Herto fossils. Shifting the age of the oldest known Homo sapiens fossils in eastern Africa to before ~200 ka is consistent with several independent lines of evidence for greater antiquity to the modern human lineage.

Eastern African Stone Age

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yonatan Sahle
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Cutting Tools ◽  
Homo Erectus ◽  
Conclusive Evidence ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Heavy Duty ◽  
Technological Tradition ◽  
Late Start

The Stone Age record is longer and better documented in eastern Africa. Archaeological and fossil evidence derives particularly from sites within the Rift Valley of the region, often with secure radiometric age estimates. Despite a relatively late start and disproportionate focus on earlier periods and open-air sites within the rift, scientific research into the region’s Stone Age record continues to play a central role in our understanding of human evolution. Putative stone tools and cutmarked bones from two Late Pliocene (3.6–2.58 million years ago or Ma) contexts are exclusive to eastern Africa, as is conclusive evidence for these by 2.5 Ma. The earliest indisputable technological traces appear in the form of simple flakes and core tools as well as surface-modified bones. It is not clear what triggered this invention, or whether there was a more rudimentary precursor to it. Neither is it certain which hominin lineage started this technology, or if it hunted or only scavenged carcasses. Well-provenienced archaeological occurrences predating 2.0 Ma are limited to sites in Ethiopia and Kenya, becoming more common across eastern Africa and beyond only later. By 1.75 Ma, lithic technologies that included heavy-duty and large cutting tools appeared in Ethiopian and Kenyan localities. Several details about this technological tradition are still inadequately understood, although its appearance in eastern Africa roughly coincides with that of Homo erectus/ergaster. By far the longest-lived Stone Age tradition, hominins with such technologies successfully inhabited high-altitude environments as early as 1.5 Ma, and expanded within and beyond Africaeven earlier. Hunting and use of fire probably started in the earlier part of this technological tradition. Small-sized and highly diverse tool forms gradually and variably started to replace heavy-duty and large cutting tools beginning c. 300 thousand years ago (ka). Conventional wisdom associates this technological and behavioral shift with the rise of Homo sapiens, although the oldest undisputed representatives of our species continued to use large cutting tools in eastern Africa after 200 ka. In addition to small retouched tools, often on products from prepared cores, significant innovations such as hafting and ranged weaponry emerged during the length of this technological tradition. Increasingly complex sociocultural behaviors, including mortuary practices, mark the later part of this period in eastern Africa. The consolidation of such skills and behaviors, besides ecological/demographic dynamics, may have enabled the ultimately decisive Out-of-Africa dispersal of our species, from eastern Africa, 50–80 ka. Even smaller and more diverse stone tool forms and other sociocultural innovations evolved in many areas of eastern Africa by 50 ka. Miniaturization and diversification allowed for the adoption of more complex technologies, including intentional blunting and microlithization. Some of these were used as parts of sophisticated composite implements, such as the bow and arrow. Complex behaviors involving personal ornamentation, symbolism, and rituals that resembled the lifeways of ethnographically known hunter-gatherer populations were similarly adopted. These dynamics eventually led to the development of new technological and socioeconomic systems marked by the inception of agriculture and attendant lifeways.

scholarly journals A dispersal of Homo sapiens from southern to eastern Africa immediately preceded the out-of-Africa migration

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Rito ◽  
Daniel Vieira ◽  
Marina Silva ◽  
Eduardo Conde-Sousa ◽  
Luísa Pereira ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Out Of Africa

scholarly journals Neanderthals: species or subspecies?

COMPASS ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-31
Author(s):  
Jennah L.A. Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Genetic Evidence ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Separate Species ◽  
Lines Of Evidence

This article focuses on the ongoing debate regarding whether Neanderthals should be classified as a subspecies of Homo sapiens or as an entirely separate species. Several lines of evidence are explored, including recent genetic evidence, which suggest that despite rare interbreeding events, Neanderthals should in fact be classified as a separate species.

Chronology of the Acheulean to Middle Stone Age transition in eastern Africa

Science ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 360 (6384) ◽  
pp. 95-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan L. Deino ◽  
Anna K. Behrensmeyer ◽  
Alison S. Brooks ◽  
John E. Yellen ◽  
Warren D. Sharp ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Technological Innovation ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Kenya Rift ◽  
Sedimentary Deposits ◽  
Uranium Series ◽  
Uranium Series Dating

The origin of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) marks the transition from a highly persistent mode of stone toolmaking, the Acheulean, to a period of increasing technological innovation and cultural indicators associated with the evolution ofHomo sapiens. We used argon-40/argon-39 and uranium-series dating to calibrate the chronology of Acheulean and early MSA artifact–rich sedimentary deposits in the Olorgesailie basin, southern Kenya rift. We determined the age of late Acheulean tool assemblages from 615,000 to 499,000 years ago, after which a large technological and faunal transition occurred, with a definitive MSA lacking Acheulean elements beginning most likely by ~320,000 years ago, but at least by 305,000 years ago. These results establish the oldest repository of MSA artifacts in eastern Africa.

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