Southward Ho!

摘要

It is now established beyond reasonable doubt that anatomically modern humans evolved in Africa between 200,000 and 150,000 years ago. A small population of about 1,000 individuals, most probably from East Africa, expanded and spread throughout much of Africa about 100,000. years ago. Genetic data indicate further migration into Asia, and later to other parts of the world. Which route did the first humans take when they moved out of Africa? The easiest would have been a walking trail along the river Nile, across the Sinai Peninsula ('northern exit route'). Then, modern humans could have gone towards Europe or into India. Modern humans from East Africa could have taken an alternate route - across the Red Sea and along the shoreline of Saudi Arabia ('southern exit route'); to the best of my knowledge, this possibility was first proposed by Masatoshi Nei and Arun Roychoudhury in 1999. Or, they may have used both routes.