Did Modern Humans Travel out of Africa Via Arabia?

NEWS HUMAN EVOLUTION Did Modern Humans Travel Out of Africa Via Arabia? JEBEL FAYA, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES—The Uerpmann of the University of Tübingen in during this period in East Africa, when our barren desert and hills here seem wholly Germany. They began digging here in 2003, own species was the only known hominin on inhospitable, with sparse rain and sandy soil uncovering artifacts from the Iron, Bronze, that continent. Other hominins, such as the supporting only a few nomadic Bedouin. But and Neolithic periods before hitting mate- Neandertals who populated Europe and north things were different 125,000 years ago, when rial from the Middle Paleolithic era, roughly Asia, did not use this combination of tools the desert was savanna, with plentiful water 300,000 to 30,000 years ago. Using single- and were not likely to have been in Arabia, he and game, and under the protection of a rock grain optically stimulated luminescence, says. That makes the African origin likely “by overhang, a group of hominids whiled away which measures how much time has passed process of elimination.” their time making stone tools. A German- since materials were last exposed to light, the Marks says the tools don’t resemble led team argues on page 453 that these tools team dated the oldest set of artifacts, includ- those from Israel or the Aterian tools from were made by modern humans who may ing stone hand axes, blades, and scrapers, to the same era in North Africa (Science, have crossed directly from Africa as part of a about 125,000 years ago. 7 January, p. 20). He suggests that H. sapiens migration spreading across Europe, Asia, and Arabia and its fi erce deserts have may have left Africa in different waves, with Australia. Although most researchers agree long been seen more as obstaclesbstacles thethe ArabianAra tools representing a migration that our species came out of Africa in one or than conduits to human migra-migra- launchedlaunche from East Africa. more waves (see p. 392), those dates are more tion, and most archaeologyogy PetragliaPe agrees that it’s likely that than 50,000 years earlier than most believe here has focused on histori-ri- H. sapienssa made the tools and that they our ancestors left the continent. camecam from Africa. “This is out of the hab- The audacious claim by itatitat range of Neandertals,” he notes. “So on January 28, 2011 Simon Armitage of Royal Hol- theyth make a really strong and plau- loway, University of London, and sible argument.” The team believes colleagues is sparking interest that these early modern humans and controversy. “This is really may have even pushed on across quite spectacular,” says archae- the Persian Gulf, perhaps to India, ologist Michael Petraglia of Indonesia, and eventually Austra- the University of Oxford in the lia.l Petraglia claims evidence of early United Kingdom, who has pre- H.H sapiens in India both before and viously argued that Homo sapi- afterafter the Indonesian eruption, though oth- www.sciencemag.org ens left Africa before the massive ers disputedi that assertion. eruption of an Indonesian vol- Mellars, in contrast, sees no evidence cano 74,000 years ago, a catastro- that the Jebel Faya artifacts are of an East phe thought to have left much of African style. He says one of the bifacials Asia unlivable for early humans is stout rather than narrow like those com- (Science, 5 March 2010, p. 1187). mon in Africa and adds that the authors have “It breaks the back of the current not ruled out Neandertals and even H. erec- Downloaded from consensus view.” But others, such tus as the toolmakers. “Everything hinges on as archaeologist Paul Mellars Rocky road. Hans-Peter Uerpmann whether that material is explicitly African— of the University of Cambridge surveys the Jebel Faya site, where early and I don’t see that.” in the United Kingdom, say that humans left stone tools behind like Other researchers are enthusiastic about although the discovery is impor- this one (inset). the Jebel Faya discovery but cautious about tant and well dated, the conclu- the conclusions. Archaeologist Mark Beech, a sions are flawed. “I’m totally visiting fellow at the University of York in the unpersuaded,” he says. “There’s not a scrap of cal times. Recent studies, however, show wet- United Kingdom who has worked extensively evidence here that these were made by mod- ter periods such as one that began around in the United Arab Emirates, praises the paper ern humans, nor that they came from Africa.” 130,000 years ago. And a spate of fi ndings but adds: “One site does not confi rm the out- The debate centers on a collection of in the past 25 years show that hominins were of-Africa-via-Arabia hypothesis.” stone tools found here at Jebel Faya, a long in the region during the Middle Paleolithic. Hans-Peter Uerpmann agrees, saying that limestone mountain an hour’s drive from the Early H. sapiens skulls and tools from Skhul fossil bones are needed “before we can be ; HANS-PETER UERPMANN bustling urban center of Sharjah and 55 kilo- and Qafzeh caves in Israel are now dated to absolutely sure” that the tools were made by meters from the Persian Gulf. A rock shel- 100,000 to 130,000 years ago, for example. H. sapiens. Other researchers are hot on the SCIENCE ter indents the mountain’s end, a few meters Co-author Anthony Marks of Southern trail: Petraglia leaves this month to continue above a desolate plain where only cam- Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, says work in Saudi Arabia, and other archaeolo- els graze today. The overhang is modest, the combination of artifacts from Jebel Faya, gists plan to comb Arabian caves and sands but it has sheltered humans for millennia, such as two-sided blades and small hand axes, for signs that our ancestors passed this way. CREDITS: A. LAWLER/ say excavators Hans-Peter and Margarethe is remarkably similar to assemblages made –ANDREW LAWLER www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 331 28 JANUARY 2011 387 Published by AAAS http://www.springer.com/series/6978.

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