Humans migrated from Africa to India 20,000 yrs earlier than believed
September 20th, 2010 - 12:17 pm ICT by ANILondon, Sept 20 (ANI): A discovery of Stone Age tools, mainly either spear heads or scrapers, has revealed that migration from Africa to India and other South-East Asian countries as well as Australia took place not 60,000 years ago, but 70,000 to 80,000 years ago - and perhaps even earlier.
Dr Michael Petraglia, of Oxford University, and colleagues say stone artefacts found in the Arabian Peninsula and India indicate that humans moved out of Africa much earlier than thought till now.
“Our evidence is stone tools that we can date,” BBC News quoted Petraglia as saying.
“During the period we’re talking about, the environments were actually very hospitable. So where there are deserts today, there used to be lakes and rivers, and there was an abundance of plants and animals,” he added.
This means it was more likely humans migrated by land than in boats, he said.
In particular, some tools were sandwiched in ash from the famous Toba eruption that geologists can date very accurately to 74,000 years ago.
However, previous research based on genetics shows that humans left Africa around 60,000 years ago or even more recently.
“These tools show that people were in these regions, but the genetic data show an exit from Africa of later than 60,000 years ago. The people in India could have died out,” said Professor Chris Stringer, of the Natural History Museum in London.
According to Petraglia, however, all of the genetic studies were based on today’s people, and so may not be accurate. (ANI)
- 'Pompeii-like' excavations in India shed light on life before and after Toba super-eruption - Feb 28, 2010
- Modern humans reached Arabia earlier than previously believed - Jan 28, 2011
- Art of making tools 55,000 years older than previously thought - Oct 29, 2010
- 9,000-year-old tools found in Mexico - Oct 21, 2011
- Climate change - a blessing in disguise! - Nov 21, 2011
- World's oldest bed found in South Africa - Dec 24, 2011
- Advent of stone microblades set off ancient population boom in Indian subcontinent - Jul 22, 2009
- Discovery of stone tools at Crete push back seafaring by 130,000 years - Feb 16, 2010
- Ancient tools show man sailed the seas 130,000 years ago - Jan 05, 2011
- World's oldest, Stone Age bed found in South Africa - Dec 24, 2011
- Neanderthals may have lived 8,000 years longer than thought - May 13, 2011
- Humans 'arrived in Britain 250,000 years earlier than thought' - Jul 08, 2010
- Evolution of human 'super-brain' tied to development of bipedalism, tool-making - Apr 21, 2011
- Ancient tools found in India throw light on hominid migrations out of Africa - Mar 26, 2011
- Malaria accompanied humans moving out of Africa - Jun 28, 2010
Tags: arabian peninsula, chris stringer, east asian countries, genetic data, genetic studies, geologists, lakes and rivers, michael petraglia, natural history museum, oxford university, plants and animals, previous research, professor chris, scrapers, south east asian countries, spear heads, stone age tools, stone artefacts, stone tools, toba eruption