Publication Date:
2011-01-29
Description:
The timing of the dispersal of anatomically modern humans (AMH) out of Africa is a fundamental question in human evolutionary studies. Existing data suggest a rapid coastal exodus via the Indian Ocean rim around 60,000 years ago. We present evidence from Jebel Faya, United Arab Emirates, demonstrating human presence in eastern Arabia during the last interglacial. The tool kit found at Jebel Faya has affinities to the late Middle Stone Age in northeast Africa, indicating that technological innovation was not necessary to facilitate migration into Arabia. Instead, we propose that low eustatic sea level and increased rainfall during the transition between marine isotope stages 6 and 5 allowed humans to populate Arabia. This evidence implies that AMH may have been present in South Asia before the Toba eruption.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Armitage, Simon J -- Jasim, Sabah A -- Marks, Anthony E -- Parker, Adrian G -- Usik, Vitaly I -- Uerpmann, Hans-Peter -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2011 Jan 28;331(6016):453-6. doi: 10.1126/science.1199113.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21273486" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Africa
;
Arabia
;
*Archaeology
;
Biological Evolution
;
*Climate Change
;
Emigration and Immigration/*history
;
History, Ancient
;
Humans
;
Time
;
United Arab Emirates
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
