• Question: when did humans leave africa

    Asked by anon-214169 to Farah, Dave on 22 Jun 2019. This question was also asked by anon-214149.
    • Photo: Dave Underhill

      Dave Underhill answered on 22 Jun 2019:

      The truth is we don’t really know, the first wave out of Africa was by Homo erectus / ergaster some 1.8 million years ago (although it may have been earlier – they have found stone tools in China that may be over 2 million years old). Since then there have been many migrations both out of and back into Africa – Africa is like a pump pushing hominins out and pulling them back in again over this time. If you’re asking about our species (Homo sapiens) the earliest evidence we have for them outside Africa is in Israel about 180,000 years ago! Homo sapiens only reached the UK about 40,000 years ago (at Kents cavern, Devon)

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