Monday, August 8, 2011

Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Human Migration

Archaeology: What's Hot Now
These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week
Human Migration
Aug 8th 2011, 10:00

Someplace in Africaâ€"probably in East Africa near the Rift Valleyâ€"modern humans evolved about 200,000 years ago. The population rose and fell, and for one reason or anotherâ€"perhaps climate changes, perhaps population pressure, perhaps wanderlustâ€"small subsets of the people left to go elsewhere, creating their own groupsâ€"or rather our own groups, for these are, after all, our ancestors. Those groups spread in the same way, small subsets of the original groups leaving for greener pastures, sometimes returning and rejoining, sometimes leaving again. Africa has a huge range of environmentsâ€"deserts, coastal regions, pampas, rivers, lakes, and mountains, and it is certain that some of these required human adaptationsâ€"behavioral, cultural and physicalâ€"to the demands of the various climates.

Eventually, we left Africa, somewhere between 50,000â€"100,000 years ago. Tishkoff and colleagues believe that the main exit path way was out of east Africa, in the Red Sea area.

Sources and Further Information

Tishkoff, Sarah A., et al. 2009 The Genetic Structure and History of Africans and African Americans. Science Express. 30 April 2009

Human Migration from Africa: Four Theories

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