Arabia is humans' first “transit” from Africa

Humans may have migrated from Africa directly into Arabia and 50,000 years earlier than previously thought, as new excavated ancient arcefacts from a dig site in Shajrah, UAE suggest.

Until now it was believed that the humankind left Africa around 60,000-70,000 years ago, but the newly unearthed findings of ancient stone tools in Jebel Faya in Sharjah suggest that humans left Africa 125,000 years ago, the UAE-based The National reported on Saturday.

"These findings will stimulate a re-evaluation of the means by which modern humans became a global species," The National quoted Simon Armitage, co-author of the study and a lecturer in the department of geography at Royal Holloway, a college at the University of London, saying.

"This is really quite spectacular," said Michael Petraglia of the University of Oxford, an archaeologist who also specializes in human migration. "It breaks the back of the current consensus view."

Arabia human’s first transit?

The tools are similar to tools produced by early modern humans in east Africa but different from those made in the Levant and the mountains of Iran, leading scientists to believe that our ancestors migrated directly into Arabia, rather than via the Nile Valley and the Near East, as is usually suggested, the newspaper said.

"The big question this leaves is when did humans migrate out of Africa, and what caused them to make that move?" Dr. Armitage said.

Dr. Armitage dated the Jebel Faya tools using a technique called luminescence, which determines when materials were last exposed to light.

The eight-year excavation effort was led Hans-Peter Uerpmann, a professor from Tubingen University in Germany.

The findings include a series of Palaeolithic stone tools, such as small axeheads, scrapers and notched tools called denticulates.

The big question this leaves is when did humans migrate out of Africa, and what caused them to make that move

Simon Armitage, co-author of the study and a lecturer in the department of geography at Royal Holloway