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73-612: The area is of special significance in the archaeology of the Upper Palaeolithic , Epipalaeolithic and Mesolithic periods of the Stone Age . A narrow coastal strip was a glacial refugium , never covered by glaciers during the Last Glacial Maximum , and appears to have been densely populated. It is part of the wider Franco-Cantabrian region (also Franco-Cantabric region ) that stretches from Asturias ,

146-498: A 1,000 year cold period, potentially reducing human populations to a few tropical refugia. It has been estimated that as few as 15,000 humans survived. In such circumstances genetic drift and founder effects may have been maximised. The greater diversity amongst African genomes may reflect the extent of African refugia during the Toba incident. However, a recent review highlights that the single-source hypothesis of non-African populations

219-554: A cranium from Lantian has been dated to 1.63 mya. Artefacts from Majuangou III and Shangshazui in the Nihewan basin , northern China, have been dated to 1.6–1.7 mya. The archaeological site of Xihoudu ( 西侯渡 ) in Shanxi province is the earliest recorded use of fire by Homo erectus , which is dated 1.27 million years ago. Southeast Asia ( Java ) was reached about 1.7 million years ago ( Meganthropus ). Western Europe

292-544: A geographically restricted area about 100,000 years ago, the passage through the geographic bottleneck and then with a dramatic growth amongst geographically dispersed populations about 50,000 years ago, beginning first in Africa and thence spreading elsewhere. Climatological and geological evidence suggests evidence for the bottleneck. The explosion of Toba , the largest volcanic eruption of the Quaternary , may have created

365-703: A limited degree. Populations of modern humans and Neanderthal overlapped in various regions such as the Iberian peninsula and the Middle East. Interbreeding may have contributed Neanderthal genes to palaeolithic and ultimately modern Eurasians and Oceanians. An important difference between Europe and other parts of the inhabited world was the northern latitude. Archaeological evidence suggests humans, whether Neanderthal or Cro-Magnon, reached sites in Arctic Russia by 40,000 years ago. Cro-Magnon are considered

438-590: A merging of populations in East and South Africa . In July 2019, anthropologists reported the discovery of 210,000 year old remains of a H. sapiens and 170,000 year old remains of a H. neanderthalensis in Apidima Cave in southern Greece , more than 150,000 years older than previous H. sapiens finds in Europe. Early modern humans expanded to Western Eurasia and Central, Western and Southern Africa from

511-465: A more robust or heavily built frame, which suggests that they were physically stronger than modern Homo sapiens . Having lived in Europe for 200,000 years, they would have been better adapted to the cold weather. The anatomically modern humans known as the Cro-Magnons , with widespread trade networks, superior technology and bodies likely better suited to running, would eventually completely displace

584-430: A specific purpose. The early modern humans who expanded into Europe, commonly referred to as the Cro-Magnons , left many sophisticated stone tools, carved and engraved pieces on bone, ivory and antler , cave paintings and Venus figurines . The Neanderthals continued to use Mousterian stone tool technology and possibly Châtelperronian technology. These tools disappeared from the archeological record at around

657-404: A way to convey seasonal behavioural information about hunted animals. Lines (|) and dots (•) were apparently used interchangeably to denote lunar months, while the (Y) sign apparently signified "To give birth". These characters were seemingly combined to convey the breeding period of hunted animals. The climate of the period in Europe saw dramatic changes, and included the Last Glacial Maximum ,

730-521: Is also found from a 125,000 years old artefacts in Buya , Eritrea and in other places such as Blombos cave in South Africa . More complex social groupings emerged, supported by more varied and reliable food sources and specialized tool types. This probably contributed to increasing group identification or ethnicity . The peopling of Australia most likely took place before c. 60 ka . Europe

803-578: Is based on a cave lion skeleton found in Seigsdorf, Germany which has hunting lesions. 14,000 BP Fertile Crescent : Europe : Africa : Siberia : The Upper Paleolithic in the Franco-Cantabrian region : Early human migrations Early human migrations are the earliest migrations and expansions of archaic and modern humans across continents. They are believed to have begun approximately 2 million years ago with

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876-913: Is evidence that Denisovans interbred with Neanderthals in Central Asia where their habitats overlapped. Neanderthal evidence has also been found quite late at 33,000 years ago at the 65th latitude of the Byzovaya site in the Ural Mountains . This is far outside of any otherwise known habitat, during a high ice cover period, and perhaps reflects a refugia of near extinction. Homo sapiens are believed to have emerged in Africa about 300,000 years ago, based in part on thermoluminescence dating of artifacts and remains from Jebel Irhoud , Morocco, published in 2017. The Florisbad Skull from Florisbad, South Africa, dated to about 259,000 years ago, has also been classified as early Homo sapiens . Previously,

949-556: Is less consistent with ancient DNA analysis than multiple sources with genetic mixing across Eurasia. The recent expansion of anatomically modern humans reached Europe around 40,000 years ago from Central Asia and the Middle East, as a result of cultural adaption to big game hunting of sub-glacial steppe fauna. Neanderthals were present both in the Middle East and in Europe, and the arriving populations of anatomically modern humans (also known as " Cro-Magnon " or European early modern humans ) interbred with Neanderthal populations to

1022-903: Is shared by Melanesians , Aboriginal Australians , and smaller scattered groups of people in Southeast Asia, such as the Mamanwa , a Negrito people in the Philippines , suggesting the interbreeding took place in Eastern Asia where the Denisovans lived. Denisovans may have crossed the Wallace Line , with Wallacea serving as their last refugium . Homo erectus had crossed the Lombok gap reaching as far as Flores, but never made it to Australia. During this time sea level

1095-724: Is some evidence that modern humans left Africa at least 125,000 years ago using two different routes: through the Nile Valley , the Sinai Peninsula and the Levant ( Qafzeh Cave : 120,000–100,000 years ago); and a second route through the present-day Bab-el-Mandeb Strait on the Red Sea (at that time, with a much lower sea level and narrower extension), crossing to the Arabian Peninsula and settling in places like

1168-524: Is this migration wave that led to the lasting spread of modern humans throughout the world. A small group from a population in East Africa, bearing mitochondrial haplogroup L3 and numbering possibly fewer than 1,000 individuals, crossed the Red Sea strait at Bab-el-Mandeb , to what is now Yemen , after around 75,000 years ago. A recent review has also shown support for the northern route through

1241-697: The 40th parallel ( Xiaochangliang ). Key sites for this early migration out of Africa are Riwat in Pakistan (~2 Ma? ), Ubeidiya in the Levant (1.5 Ma) and Dmanisi in the Caucasus (1.81 ± 0.03 Ma, p =0.05 ). China shows evidence of Homo erectus from 2.12 mya in Gongwangling, in Lantian county. Two Homo erectus incisors have been found near Yuanmou, southern China, and are dated to 1.7 mya, and

1314-840: The Balkans , parts of the Iberian Peninsula and areas around the Black Sea . This period saw cultures such as the Solutrean in France and Spain. Human life may have continued on top of the ice sheet, but we know next to nothing about it, and very little about the human life that preceded the European glaciers. In the early part of the period, up to about 30 kya, the Mousterian Pluvial made northern Africa, including

1387-645: The Cantabrian Mountains and their glaciers, which lie to the south of the whole region. Upper Palaeolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic ) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age . Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene ), according to some theories coinciding with the appearance of behavioral modernity in early modern humans , until

1460-614: The Last Glacial Maximum , North Eurasian populations migrated to the Americas about 20,000 years ago . Arctic Canada and Greenland were reached by the Paleo-Eskimo expansion around 4,000 years ago. Finally, Polynesia was populated within the past 2,000 years in the last wave of the Austronesian expansion . The earliest humans developed out of australopithecine ancestors about 3 million years ago, most likely in

1533-620: The Levantine corridor and Horn of Africa to Eurasia . This migration has been proposed as being related to the operation of the Saharan pump , around 1.9 million years ago. Homo erectus dispersed throughout most of the Old World , reaching as far as Southeast Asia . Its distribution is traced by the Oldowan lithic industry, by 1.3 million years ago extending as far north as

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1606-620: The Omo remains , excavated between 1967 and 1974 in Omo National Park , Ethiopia , and dated to 200,000 years ago, were long held to be the oldest known fossils of Homo sapiens . In September 2019, scientists reported the computerized determination, based on 260 CT scans , of a virtual skull shape of the last common human ancestor to anatomically modern humans, representative of the earliest modern humans, and suggested that modern humans arose between 260,000 and 350,000 years ago through

1679-766: The Paglicci Cave in Italy, dated to 23,000 and 24,000 years old (Paglicci 52 and 12), identified the mtDNA as Haplogroup N , typical of the latter group. The expansion of modern human population is thought to have begun 45,000 years ago, and it may have taken 15,000–20,000 years for Europe to be colonized. During this time, the Neanderthals were slowly being displaced. Because it took so long for Europe to be occupied, it appears that humans and Neanderthals may have been constantly competing for territory. The Neanderthals had larger brains, and were larger overall, with

1752-833: The Sahara , well-watered and with lower temperatures than today; after the end of the Pluvial the Sahara became arid. The Last Glacial Maximum was followed by the Allerød oscillation , a warm and moist global interstadial that occurred around 13.5 to 13.8 kya. Then there was a very rapid onset, perhaps within as little as a decade, of the cold and dry Younger Dryas climate period, giving sub-arctic conditions to much of northern Europe. The Preboreal rise in temperatures also began sharply around 10.3 kya, and by its end around 9.0 kya had brought temperatures nearly to present day levels, although

1825-412: The Sinai Peninsula and the Levant . Their descendants spread along the coastal route around Arabia and Persia to South Asia before 55,000 years ago. Other research supports a migration out of Africa between about 65,000 and 50,000 years ago. The coastal migration between roughly 70,000 and 50,000 years ago is associated with mitochondrial haplogroups M and N , both derivative of L3. Along

1898-399: The early expansions out of Africa by Homo erectus . This initial migration was followed by other archaic humans including H. heidelbergensis , which lived around 500,000 years ago and was the likely ancestor of Denisovans and Neanderthals as well as modern humans. Early hominids had likely crossed land bridges that have now sunk. Within Africa, Homo sapiens dispersed around

1971-439: The fish hook , the oil lamp , rope , and the eyed needle . Fishing of pelagic fish species and navigating the open ocean is evidenced by sites from Timor and Buka ( Solomon Islands ). The changes in human behavior have been attributed to changes in climate, encompassing a number of global temperature drops. These led to a worsening of the already bitter cold of the last glacial period (popularly but incorrectly called

2044-670: The Americas by about 15 ka. In Western Eurasia, the Paleolithic eases into the so-called Epipaleolithic or Mesolithic from the end of the LGM, beginning 15 ka. The Holocene glacial retreat begins 11.7 ka ( 10th millennium BC ), falling well into the Old World Epipaleolithic, and marking the beginning of the earliest forms of farming in the Fertile Crescent . Both Homo erectus and Neanderthals used

2117-572: The European Russian Arctic from 40,000 years ago. Humans colonised the environment west of the Urals, hunting reindeer especially, but were faced with adaptive challenges; winter temperatures averaged from −20 to −30 °C (−4 to −22 °F) with fuel and shelter scarce. They travelled on foot and relied on hunting highly mobile herds for food. These challenges were overcome through technological innovations: tailored clothing from

2190-471: The Levant and to Europe between 130,000 and 115,000 years ago, and possibly in earlier waves as early as 185,000 years ago. A fragment of a jawbone with eight teeth found at Misliya Cave has been dated to around 185,000 years ago. Layers dating from between 250,000 and 140,000 years ago in the same cave contained tools of the Levallois type which could put the date of the first migration even earlier if

2263-557: The Middle East. Studies show a higher Neanderthal admixture in East Asians than in Europeans. North African groups share a similar excess of derived alleles with Neanderthals as non-African populations, whereas Sub-Saharan African groups are the only modern human populations with no substantial Neanderthal admixture. The Neanderthal-linked haplotype B006 of the dystrophin gene has also been found among nomadic pastoralist groups in

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2336-520: The Neanderthal population. Contemporary Europeans have Neanderthal ancestry , but it seems likely that substantial interbreeding with Neanderthals ceased before 47,000 years ago, i.e. took place before modern humans entered Europe. There is evidence from mitochondrial DNA that modern humans have passed through at least one genetic bottleneck , in which genome diversity was drastically reduced. Henry Harpending has proposed that humans spread from

2409-486: The Neanderthals, whose last refuge was in the Iberian Peninsula . Neanderthals disappeared about 40,000 years ago. From the extent of linkage disequilibrium, it was estimated that the last Neanderthal gene flow into early ancestors of Europeans occurred 47,000–65,000 years BP . In conjunction with archaeological and fossil evidence, interbreeding is thought to have occurred somewhere in Western Eurasia, possibly

2482-533: The Sahel and Horn of Africa, who are associated with northern populations. Consequently, the presence of this B006 haplotype on the northern and northeastern perimeter of Sub-Saharan Africa is attributed to gene flow from a non-African point of origin. " Tianyuan man ", an individual who lived in China c. 40,000 years ago, showed substantial Neanderthal admixture. A 2017 study of the ancient DNA of Tianyuan Man found that

2555-673: The advent of the Neolithic Revolution and agriculture . Anatomically modern humans (i.e. Homo sapiens ) are believed to have emerged in Africa around 300,000 years ago. It has been argued by some that their ways of life changed relatively little from that of archaic humans of the Middle Paleolithic , until about 50,000 years ago, when there was a marked increase in the diversity of artefacts found associated with modern human remains. This period coincides with

2628-552: The ancestral population shared by East Asians and Native Americans. A 2016 study presented an analysis of the population genetics of the Ainu people of northern Japan as key to the reconstruction of the early peopling of East Asia. The Ainu were found to represent a more basal branch than the modern farming populations of East Asia, suggesting an ancient (pre-Neolithic) connection with northeast Siberians. A 2013 study associated several phenotypical traits associated with Mongoloids with

2701-742: The area of the Kenyan Rift Valley , where the oldest known stone tools have been found. Stone tools recently discovered at the Shangchen site in China and dated to 2.12 million years ago are claimed to be the earliest known evidence of hominins outside Africa, surpassing Dmanisi in Georgia by 300,000 years. Between 2 and less than a million years ago, Homo spread throughout East Africa and to Southern Africa ( Homo ergaster ), but not yet to West Africa. Around 1.8 million years ago, Homo erectus migrated out of Africa via

2774-706: The beginning of the Upper Paleolithic , gave rise to the major population groups of the Old World and the Americas . Towards the West, Upper Paleolithic populations associated with mitochondrial haplogroup R and its derivatives, spread throughout Asia and Europe, with a back-migration of M1 to North Africa and the Horn of Africa several millennia ago. Presence in Europe is certain after 40,000 years ago, possibly as early as 43,000 years ago, rapidly replacing

2847-509: The boundary of the Arctic , by c. 32,000 years ago, when they were being displaced from their earlier habitats by H. sapiens , based on 2011 excavations at the site of Byzovaya in the Urals ( Komi Republic , 65°01′N 57°25′E  /  65.02°N 57.42°E  / 65.02; 57.42 ). Other archaic human species are assumed to have spread throughout Africa by this time, although

2920-542: The claim that modern humans from Africa arrived at southern China about 100,000 years ago ( Zhiren Cave , Zhirendong , Chongzuo City: 100,000 years ago; and the Liujiang hominid ( Liujiang County ): controversially dated at 139,000–111,000 years ago ). Dating results of the Lunadong ( Bubing Basin , Guangxi , southern China ) teeth, which include a right upper second molar and a left lower second molar, indicate that

2993-761: The climate was wetter. This period saw the Upper Paleolithic give way to the start of the following Mesolithic cultural period. As the glaciers receded sea levels rose; the English Channel , Irish Sea and North Sea were land at this time, and the Black Sea a fresh-water lake. In particular the Atlantic coastline was initially far out to sea in modern terms in most areas, though the Mediterranean coastline has retreated far less, except in

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3066-453: The coast eventually turning northeast to China and finally reaching Japan before turning inland. This is evidenced by the pattern of mitochondrial haplogroups descended from haplogroup M , and in Y-chromosome haplogroup C . Sequencing of one Aboriginal genome from an old hair sample in Western Australia revealed that the individual was descended from people who migrated into East Asia between 62,000 and 75,000 years ago. This supports

3139-402: The coldest phase of the last glacial period , which lasted from about 26.5 to 19 kya, being coldest at the end, before relatively rapid warming (all dates vary somewhat for different areas, and in different studies). During the Maximum, most of Northern Europe was covered by an ice-sheet , forcing human populations into the areas known as Last Glacial Maximum refugia , including modern Italy and

3212-477: The first anatomically modern humans in Europe. They entered Eurasia by the Zagros Mountains (near present-day Iran and eastern Turkey ) around 50,000 years ago, with one group rapidly settling coastal areas around the Indian Ocean and another migrating north to the steppes of Central Asia . Modern human remains dating to 45,000-47,000 have been found in Germany , while finds of 43,000–45,000 years ago have been discovered in Italy and Britain, as well as in

3285-483: The fossil record is sparse. Their presence is assumed based on traces of admixture with modern humans found in the genome of African populations. Homo naledi , discovered in South Africa in 2013 and tentatively dated to about 300,000 years ago, may represent fossil evidence of such an archaic human species. Neanderthals spread across the Near East and Europe, while Denisovans appear to have spread across Central and East Asia and to Southeast Asia and Oceania. There

3358-627: The individual is related to modern Asian and Native American populations. A 2013 study found Neanderthal introgression of 18 genes within the chromosome 3p21.31 region (HYAL region) of East Asians. The introgressive haplotypes were positively selected in only East Asian populations, rising steadily from 45,000 years ago until a sudden increase of growth rate around 5,000 to 3,500 years ago. They occur at very high frequencies among East Asian populations in contrast to other Eurasian populations (e.g. European and South Asian populations). The findings also suggest that this Neanderthal introgression occurred within

3431-445: The last ice age ). Such changes may have reduced the supply of usable timber and forced people to look at other materials. In addition, flint becomes brittle at low temperatures and may not have functioned as a tool. Some notational signs, used next to images of animals, may have appeared as early as the Upper Palaeolithic in Europe circa 35,000 BCE, and may be the earliest proto-writing : several symbols were used in combination as

3504-440: The last Neanderthal and the first Homo Sapiens populations of the early Upper Paleolithic. Modern Europeans of today bear no trace of the genomes of the first Homo Sapiens Europeans, but only of those from after the ecological crisis of 38,000 BCE. Modern humans then repopulated Europe from the east after the eruption and the ice age that took place from 38,000 to 36,000 BCE. A mitochondrial DNA sequence of two Cro-Magnons from

3577-567: The latest, with derived forms classified as H. antecessor in Europe around 800,000 years ago and H. heidelbergensis in Africa around 600,000 years ago. H. heidelbergensis in its turn spread across East Africa ( H. rhodesiensis ) and to Eurasia, where it gave rise to Neanderthals and Denisovans . H. heidelbergensis , Neanderthals and Denisovans expanded north beyond the 50th parallel ( Eartham Pit, Boxgrove 500kya, Swanscombe Heritage Park 400kya, Denisova Cave 50 kya). It has been suggested that late Neanderthals may even have reached

3650-430: The modern Khoi-San expanded to Southern Africa before 150,000 years ago, possibly as early as before 260,000 years ago, so that by the beginning of the MIS 5 " megadrought ", 130,000 years ago, there were two ancestral population clusters in Africa, bearers of mt-DNA haplogroup L0 in southern Africa, ancestral to the Khoi-San, and bearers of haplogroup L1-6 in central/eastern Africa, ancestral to everyone else. There

3723-561: The molars may be as old as 126,000 years. Since these previous exits from Africa did not leave traces in the results of genetic analyses based on the Y chromosome and on MtDNA, it seems that those modern humans did not survive in large numbers and were assimilated by our major antecessors. An explanation for their extinction (or small genetic imprint) may be the Toba eruption (74,000 years ago), though some argue it scarcely affected human population. The so-called " recent dispersal " of modern humans took place about 70–50,000 years ago. It

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3796-435: The most common date assigned to expansion of modern humans from Africa throughout Asia and Eurasia, which contributed to the extinction of the Neanderthals . The Upper Paleolithic has the earliest known evidence of organized settlements , in the form of campsites, some with storage pits. Artistic work blossomed, with cave painting, petroglyphs , carvings and engravings on bone or ivory. The first evidence of human fishing

3869-434: The next region west of Cantabria, to Provence in southeastern France . The main archaeological industries in the area during this period are the Middle Paleolithic Mousterian , the Upper Paleolithic Chatelperronian , Aurignacian , Gravettian , Solutrean , Magdalenian , and then the Azilian , which is variously classified as Late Paleolithic, Epipalaeolithic and Mesolithic. Vasco-Cantabrian sites contain much of

3942-431: The north of the Adriatic and the Aegean . The rise in sea levels continued until at least 7.5 kya ( 5500 BC ), so evidence of human activity along Europe's coasts in the Upper Paleolithic is mostly lost, though some traces have been recovered by fishing boats and marine archaeology , especially from Doggerland , the lost area beneath the North Sea. The first direct evidence for Neanderthals hunting cave lions . This

4015-649: The oldest evidence of settlement in Australia, around 40,000 years ago for the oldest human remains, the earliest humans artifacts which are at least 65,000 years old and the extinction of the Australian megafauna by humans between 46,000 and 15,000 years ago argued by Tim Flannery, which is similar to what happened in the Americas. The continued use of Stone Age tools in Australia has been much debated. The population brought to South Asia by coastal migration appears to have remained there for some time, during roughly 60,000 to 50,000 years ago, before spreading further throughout Eurasia. This dispersal of early humans, at

4088-409: The pelts of fur-bearing animals; construction of shelters with hearths using bones as fuel; and digging "ice cellars" into the permafrost to store meat and bones. However, from recent research it is believed that the ecological crisis resulting from the eruption in c. 38,000 BCE of the super-volcano in the Phlegrean Fields near Naples, which left much of eastern Europe covered in ash, wiped out both

4161-412: The populations of larger animals, with herd animals preferring a more open landscape, notably bison , horse and red deer, giving way to "smaller, less gregarious game", such as wild boar and roe deer . At the start of the Holocene , a rise in sea levels considerably reduced the width of the coastal strip, taking some 6–16 km from a strip that had only been 25–50 km wide between the sea to the north and

4234-448: The present-day United Arab Emirates (125,000 years ago) and Oman (106,000 years ago), and possibly reaching the Indian Subcontinent ( Jwalapuram : 75,000 years ago.) Although no human remains have yet been found in these three places, the apparent similarities between the stone tools found at Jebel Faya , those from Jwalapuram and some from Africa suggest that their creators were all modern humans. These findings might give some support to

4307-425: The relevant period common trees included birch , Scots pine , beech , juniper and willow , all of which fluctuated with changes in temperature. The animal remains commonly found at human sites include red deer , aurochs , ibex , horse and goats . Reindeer are rare, unlike in southern France. During this period the climate fluctuated, and warmer periods brought a great increase in forest cover, changing

4380-709: The same crude stone tools. Archaeologist Richard G. Klein , who has worked extensively on ancient stone tools, describes the stone tool kit of archaic hominids as impossible to categorize. He argues that almost everywhere, whether Asia , Africa or Europe , before 50,000 years ago all the stone tools are much alike and unsophisticated. Firstly among the artefacts of Africa, archeologists found they could differentiate and classify those of less than 50,000 years into many different categories, such as projectile points, engraving tools, knife blades, and drilling and piercing tools. These new stone-tool types have been described as being distinctly differentiated from each other; each tool had

4453-421: The same time the Neanderthals themselves disappeared from the fossil record, about 40,000 cal BP. Settlements were often located in narrow valley bottoms, possibly associated with hunting of passing herds of animals. Some of them may have been occupied year round, though more commonly they appear to have been used seasonally; people moved between the sites to exploit different food sources at different times of

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4526-432: The surviving art of the Upper Paleolithic , especially in terms of cave paintings . The UNESCO World Heritage Site " Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain " consists of ten caves in Cantabria and three in the Basque County, as well as five from Asturias . The region is and was part of the Eurosiberian climatic zone , and remained relatively moist throughout the period, unlike much of Spain. In

4599-412: The theory of a single migration into Australia and New Guinea before the arrival of Modern Asians (between 25,000 and 38,000 years ago) and their later migration into North America. This migration is believed to have happened around 50,000 years ago, before Australia and New Guinea were separated by rising sea levels approximately 8,000 years ago. This is supported by a date of 50,000–60,000 years ago for

4672-938: The time of its speciation , roughly 300,000 years ago. The recent African origin paradigm suggests that the anatomically modern humans outside of Africa descend from a population of Homo sapiens migrating from East Africa roughly 70–50,000 years ago and spreading along the southern coast of Asia and to Oceania by about 50,000 years ago. Modern humans spread across Europe about 40,000 years ago. Early Eurasian Homo sapiens fossils have been found in Israel and Greece, dated to 194,000–177,000 and 210,000 years old respectively. These fossils seem to represent failed dispersal attempts by early Homo sapiens , who were likely replaced by local Neanderthal populations. The migrating modern human populations are known to have interbred with earlier local populations, so that contemporary human populations are descended in small part (below 10% contribution) from regional varieties of archaic humans. After

4745-548: The time of their emergence. While early expansions to Eurasia appear not to have persisted, expansions to Southern and Central Africa resulted in the deepest temporal divergence in living human populations. Early modern human expansion in sub-Saharan Africa appears to have contributed to the end of late Acheulean ( Fauresmith ) industries at about 130,000 years ago, although very late coexistence of archaic and early modern humans, until as late as 12,000 years ago, has been argued for West Africa in particular. The ancestors of

4818-413: The tools can be associated with the modern human jawbone finds. These early migrations do not appear to have led to lasting colonisation and receded by about 80,000 years ago. There is a possibility that this first wave of expansion may have reached China (or even North America ) as early as 125,000 years ago, but would have died out without leaving a trace in the genome of contemporary humans. There

4891-401: The way H. sapiens interbred with Neanderthals and Denisovans, with Denisovan DNA making 0.2% of mainland Asian and Native American DNA. Migrations continued along the Asian coast to Southeast Asia and Oceania, colonising Australia by around 65,000–50,000 years ago. By reaching Australia, H. sapiens for the first time expanded its habitat beyond that of H. erectus . Denisovan ancestry

4964-473: The western Sahelian zone by 130,000 years ago, while tropical West African sites associated with H. sapiens are known only from after 130,000 years ago. Unlike elsewhere in Africa, archaic Middle Stone Age sites appear to persist until very late, down to the Holocene boundary (12,000 years ago), pointing to the possibility of late survival of archaic humans , and late hybridization with H. sapiens in West Africa. Populations of Homo sapiens migrated to

5037-486: The year. Hunting was important, and caribou/wild reindeer "may well be the species of single greatest importance in the entire anthropological literature on hunting". Technological advances included significant developments in flint tool manufacturing, with industries based on fine blades rather than simpler and shorter flakes . Burins and racloirs were used to work bone, antler and hides . Advanced darts and harpoons also appear in this period, along with

5110-434: Was a significant back-migration of bearers of L0 towards eastern Africa between 120 and 75 kya. Expansion to Central Africa by the ancestors of the Central African forager populations (African Pygmies) most likely took place before 130,000 years ago, and certainly before 60,000 years ago. The situation in West Africa is difficult to interpret due to a sparsity of fossil evidence. Homo sapiens seems to have reached

5183-532: Was first populated around 1.2 million years ago ( Atapuerca ). Robert G. Bednarik has suggested that Homo erectus may have built rafts and sailed oceans, a theory that has raised some controversy. One million years after its dispersal, H. erectus was diverging into new species. H. erectus is a chronospecies and was never extinct, so its "late survival" is a matter of taxonomic convention. Late forms of H. erectus are thought to have survived until after about 0.5 million ago to 143,000 years ago at

5256-486: Was much lower and most of Maritime Southeast Asia formed one land mass known as Sunda . Migration continued Southeast on the coastal route to the straits between Sunda and Sahul , the continental land mass of present-day Australia and New Guinea . The gaps on the Weber Line are up to 90 km wide, so the migration to Australia and New Guinea would have required seafaring skills. Migration also continued along

5329-487: Was peopled after c. 45 ka. Anatomically modern humans are known to have expanded northward into Siberia as far as the 58th parallel by about 45 ka ( Ust'-Ishim man ). The Upper Paleolithic is divided by the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), from about 25 to 15 ka. The peopling of the Americas occurred during this time, with East and Central Asia populations reaching the Bering land bridge after about 35 ka, and expanding into

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