Until now it was believed that the human exodus occurred about 60,000 years ago through the Nile Valley or the Middle East. However, a new international study published inScience suggests thathumans could have come to Arabia directly from Africa about 125,000 years ago. “These” anatomically modern “humans evolved in Africa about 200,000 years ago and then populated the rest of the world,” says Simon Armitage, lead author of the study and researcher in the Department of Geography at the University of London (UK).
Hans-Peter Uerpmann, a scientist at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen, Germany, and his team foundan ancient box of human tools at the Jebel Faya archaeological site(United Arab Emirates). Scientists determined that the utensils were between 100,000 and 125,000 years old. Among the artifacts found are primitive hand axes and a wide variety of scrapers and piercers. The manufacture of the instruments, similar to that used by primitive humans in East Africa, is different from that used in the Middle East. According to the research team, the technological innovation “was not necessary to emigrate to Arabia.”
The study also analyzes sea levels and climate changes that occurred in the Persian Gulf during the first interglacial period 130,000 years ago. The results show thatthe Bab el Manded Strait, which separates Arabia from the African coast, was reduced because sea levels were lower. Possibly this facilitated the passage of humans to the Arabian Peninsula. “Jebel Faya reveals a fascinating picture in which modern humans, with the help of global fluctuations in sea levels and climatic changes in the Arabian Peninsula, migrated much earlier than previously thought,” concludes Armitage.
