EARLY MODERN HUMANS MIGRATE TO ASIA

Migration of Y chromosome haplogroup C in East Asia

The fact that some of earliest evidence of modern humans outside of Africa and the Middle East is in Australia suggests that the early man followed a coastal route through South Asia and Southeast Asia to Australia. It is believed that the migration was not a caravan-like journey but rather one in which some huts were set up on the beach and the migrants lived there for a while moving and then moved to a new location further to the east every couple of years. Traces of such a migration if it took place were covered in water and sediments when sea levels rose at the end of the Ice Age.

Around 40,000 years ago, it is thought, humans reached the steppes of Central Asia and pushed on into Siberia. There is evidence of human habitation on the northern Yana River in Siberia dated to 30,000 years ago.

Some genetic evidence indicates that a group of 4,000 modern humans left Africa between 75,000 and 50,000 years ago and ultimately populated Asia. All non-Africans share genetic markers (the M168 marker in particular) carried by these early immigrants. The descendants of these people replaced all earlier types of humans, notably Neanderthals. All-non Africans are descendants of these people. The Onge from the Andaman Islands in India carry some of the oldest genetic markers found outside Africa.

Many scientists believe the migration took place rather late and humans that took part in it spread very far, very quickly, This theory is backed in part by the features of skulls of ancient modern men found in Europe, Asia and even Australia with those of the Hofmeyr skull found in South Africa in the 1950s and dated to be 33,000 to 42,000 years old. This finding was reported in a January 2007 article in the journal Science by team led by Frederick Grine at State University of New York at Stony Brook.

The dating of the Hofmeyer skull has provided an important piece of the puzzle. Before it was dated no human fossil existed for the period between 15,000 and 70,000 years ago when the great migration out of Africa was taking place. The skull was dated by Richard Baily at Oxford University using a new technology that measures the amounts of radiation absorbed by sand grains that filled its braincase after burial. When the skull was found this technology did not exist and it was originally thought to be undatable because no other bones were found near it and its original resting place had been disrupted by river sediments.

Websites and Resources on Hominins and Human Origins: Smithsonian Human Origins Program humanorigins.si.edu ; Institute of Human Origins iho.asu.edu ; Becoming Human University of Arizona site becominghuman.org ; Hall of Human Origins American Museum of Natural History amnh.org/exhibitions ; The Bradshaw Foundation bradshawfoundation.com ; Britannica Human Evolution britannica.com ; Human Evolution handprint.com ; University of California Museum of Anthropology ucmp.berkeley.edu; John Hawks' Anthropology Weblog johnhawks.net/ ; New Scientist: Human Evolution newscientist.com/article-topic/human-evolution

Earliest Evidence of Modern Humans in Asia and Oceania

Fuyan Cave, China, teeth

Country — Date — Place — Notes
China — 80,000–120,000 years before present — Fuyan Cave — Teeth were found under rock over which 80,000 years old stalagmites had grown.
India — 70,000 years before present — Jwalapuram, Andhra Pradesh — Recent finds of stone tools in Jwalapuram before and after the Toba supereruption, may have been made by modern humans, but this is disputed.
Indonesia —63,000-73,000 years before present — Lida Ajer cave — Teeth found in Sumatra in the 19th century
Philippines —67,000 years before present — Callao Cave — Archaeologists, Dr. Armand Mijares with Dr. Phil Piper found bones in a cave near Peñablanca, Cagayan in 2010 have been dated as ca. 67,000 years old. It's the earliest human fossil ever found in Asia-Pacific
Australia — 65,000 years before present — Madjedbebe — The oldest human skeletal remains are the 40,000-year-old Lake Mungo remains in New South Wales, but human ornaments discovered at Devil's Lair in Western Australia have been dated to 48,000 years before present and artifacts at Madjedbebe in Northern Territory are dated to ca. 65,000 Years before present. [Source: Wikipedia +]

Out of Africa Theory

There are various theories describing how migration patterns played a part in the development of early humans. The traditional, widely-accepted "Single Origin, Out of Africa Theory" of human evolution posits that earliest hominids evolved in Africa; that Australopithecus species evolved into Homo species in Africa; that early Homo species migrated to Asia and the Old World from Africa between a million and two million years ago; and that Homo sapiens also evolved in Africa.

According to the “Out of Africa" theory there were two migrations of African-born Homo species. First, Homo erectus began slowly moving into the Middle East, Europe and Asia between a million and two million years ago. Homo erectus splintered into numerous colonies that developed separately from one another. None of the colonies outside of Africa contributed to the development of Homo sapiens , which also originally evolved in Africa.

Hominids are thought to have most likely migrated across what is called the Levantine Corridor through what is now Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon or across southern Arabia. Genetic studies of 28 of China's 56 ethnic groups, published by the Chinese Human Genae Diversity Project in 2000, indicate that the first Chinese descended from Africans who migrated their way along the Indian Ocean and made their way to China via Southeast Asia.

Early Modern Human Migration Route to Asia

The route of the early migrants that populated the world is still a matter of speculation. They may have migrated out of Africa via the Red Sea and the Nile Valley to the Middle East or across the southern Red Sea, making their way across southern Arabia to the Persian Gulf. At that time an ice age narrowed the gap across the Res Sea between the Horn of Africa and Arabia to only a few kilometers. It was originally that these early migrants made their way eastward via the Sinai peninsula but many think they crossed the Bab el Mandeb Strait, separating Djibouti from the Arabian Peninsula.. The straits across the Persian Gulf between Arabia and west Asia was also shortened by the ice age.

The migrants seem to have stayed near the sea during much of the migration. That way they had acess to reliable sources of food in the form of fish and mollusks. Who knows they may have even used boats to follow the coast — a method many scientists theorize was used tens of thousands of years later to reach America. To reach Australia within the timeline of theory would have required an advance of about on kilometer a year.The archaeological record indicates the migrants made it as far as India around 75,000 years ago. Tools found Jwalapuram, a 74,000-year-old site in southern India, match those used in Africa from the same period. Excavated by anthropologist Michael Petraglia of the University of Cambridge, the site until recently was the oldest known outside of Africa aside from Qafzeh and Skhul in Israel.

DNA studies of people living today indicate that modern humans migrated from Eastern Africa to the Middle East, then Southern and Southeast Asia, then New Guinea and Australia, followed by Europe and Central Asia. Perhaps they didn't enter Europe because that region was dominated by Neanderthals. According to research by geneticist at the University of Cambridge in the mid 2000s all modern humans descend from a small number of Africans that left Africa between 55,000 and 60,000 years ago. Another less reliable DNA study determined that an intrepid group of 500 hominids marched out of Africa about 140,000 years ago and they are the ancestors to all modern people today. [Source: Guy Gugliotta, Smithsonian magazine, July 2008]

These studies are based on genetic variations found in different population groups. People in sub-Saharan Africa have more genetic variation than non-Africans. The number of people and the date for the 140,000 year figure was arrived by studying genetic variations in 34 populations around the world, coming up with a rate of genetic change and extrapolated back in time. The fact that people in sub-Saharan Africa have more genetic variation than non-Africa indicated humans that have lived in Africa have lived there longer than other people have lived in their homelands.

The earliest known mutation to spread outside Africa is M168, which developed about 50,000 years ago. It is found in all non-Africans. M9 is a marker common in Eurasians. It appeared in the Middle East or Central Asia about 40,000 years ago. M3 is a marker that developed among Asian people around 10,000 years ago and reached the Americas.

Chinese researchers Feng Zhang, Bing Su, Ya-ping Zhang and Li Jin wrote in an article published by the Royal Society: While more and more genetic evidence supports the out of Africa hypothesis, the migration route which leads to the peopling of Eurasia remains controversial. As mentioned previously, there are two possible migration routes (from Central Asia and Southeast Asia) that were involved in three hypothetical models of the entry of modern humans into East Asia. By the phylogenetic analysis of 30 autosomal microsatellite loci in 28 populations, Chu et al. (1998) showed that northern and southern Chinese belong to distinct clusters and indicated that the colonization of East Asia might be mainly attributed to the northward migration of the settlers from Southeast Asia. Yao et al. (2002) analysed the mtDNA gene pool of Han Chinese and observed a south-to-north cline based on the haplogroup frequency. In addition, the haplogroups in southern East Asians (SEAS) were found to be more ancient than those in the northern population (Yao et al. 2002). This evidence suggested that the southern route might play an important part in the peopling of East Asia. [Source: “Genetic studies of human diversity in East Asia” by 1) Feng Zhang, Institute of Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, 2) Bing Su, Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, 3) Ya-ping Zhang, Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Bio-resource, Yunnan University and 4) Li Jin, Institute of Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University. Author for correspondence (ljin007@gmail.com), 2007 The Royal Society ncbi.nlm.nih.gov ]

On the paternal side, Su et al. (1999) examined 19 Y-SNPs and 3 Y-STRs in 925 males from a wide area of Asia and observed that SEAS are much more polymorphic than NEAS, which suggested the southern origin of northern populations and the migratory route from south to north after the initial Palaeolithic peopling of East Asia. Recently, in a systematic sampling and genetic screening of one East Asian-specific Y chromosome haplogroup (O3-M122) in 2332 males from diverse East Asian populations, Shi et al. (2005) showed that this haplotype was more polymorphic in SEAS than in NEAS, which suggested a southern origin of the O3-M122 mutation. According to the Y-STR data, it was estimated that the early northward migration of the O3-M122 lineages in East Asia occurred ca 25 000–30 000 years ago (Shi et al. 2005). ***

single and multiple migration waves into Asia

Migration Routes Out of Africa

Modern humans first arose at least 300,000 years ago in Africa. When and how they dispersed from there has been controversial and a topic of fierce debate in the academic community, with geneticists suggesting the exodus started between 40,000 and 70,000 years ago but fossils, artifacts and archaeological evidence saying they left much earlier than that. The currently accepted theory backed up archaeological evidence is that the exodus from Africa followed the “southern route” along Arabia's shores, or possibly through its now-arid interior. Genetic evidence — and some archaeological evidence — supports the “northern route” theory that they traveled through modern-day Egypt, Israel-Palestine to Europe and Asia.

Charles Q. Choi wrote in Live Science: “Scientists had suggested two routes for the exodus from Africa. One, known as the northern route, has humans exiting through what is now Egypt and Sinai. The other, the southern route, brought humans through what is now Ethiopia and Arabia. The available evidence for either migratory path remains inconclusive”. [Source: Charles Q. Choi, Live Science, May 28, 2015]

The northern route as the preferred way from Africa is supported by the fact that all non-Africans possess DNA from Neanderthals, who were present along the northern route in the eastern Mediterranean at the time. This new finding is also in agreement with the recent discovery of modern human fossils in Israel close to the northern route that date to about 55,000 years ago. Although there is genetic and archaeological evidence that some people did take the southern route out of Africa, perhaps those people got no farther than Arabia, or left no genetic trace in modern Eurasians.”

First Humans to Leave Africa Settled in Iraq, Iran and Arabia Before Moving On

Maybe the first wave of modern humans began leaving Africa about 180,000 to 120,000 years ago but large migrations out of the continent didn’t appear to occur until around 60,000 to 70,000 — but where did these peoplego. Reuters reported: After years of debate, a new study offers an answer. These bands of hunter-gatherers appear to have lingered for thousands of years as a homogeneous population in a geographic hub that spanned Iran, southeast Iraq and northeast Saudi Arabia before going on to settle all of Asia and Europe starting roughly 45,000 years ago, scientists said on Monday. [Source: Reuters, March 2024]

“Their findings were based on genomic datasets drawn from ancient DNA and modern gene pools, combined with paleoecological evidence that showed that this region would have represented an ideal habitat. The researchers called this region, part of what is called the Persian Plateau, a "hub" for these people - who numbered perhaps only in the thousands - before they continued onward millennia later to more distant locales. "Our results provide the first full picture of the whereabouts of the ancestors of all present-day non-Africans in the early phases on the colonization of Eurasia," said molecular anthropologist Luca Pagani of the University of Padova in Italy, senior author of the study published in the journal Nature Communications.

Anthropologist and study co-author Michael Petraglia, director of the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution at Griffith University, said the study "is a story about us and our history - our goal was to unravel some of the mystery about our evolution and our worldwide dispersal. The combination of genetic and paleoecological models allowed us to predict the location where early human populations first resided as soon as they exited Africa."

These people lived in small, mobile bands of hunter-gatherers, the researchers said. The hub location offered a variety of ecological settings, from forests to grasslands and savannahs, fluctuating over time between arid and wet intervals. There would have been ample resources available, with evidence showing the hunting of wild gazelle, sheep and goat, Petraglia said. "Their diet would have been composed of edible plants and small- to large-sized game. Hunter-gatherer groups seemed to have practiced a seasonal lifestyle, living in the lowlands in the cooler months and in the mountainous regions in the warmer months," Petraglia said.

The people inhabiting the hub at the time apparently had dark skin and dark hair, perhaps resembling the Gumuz or Anuak people now living in parts of East Africa, Pagani said. "Cave art simultaneously appeared as soon as people left the hub. So these cultural achievements might have been brewed while in the hub," Pagani said. Their eventual dispersal in different directions beyond the hub set the basis for the genetic divergence between present-day East Asians and Europeans, the researchers said.

The study tapped into modern and ancient genomic data for European and Asian people. "We found particularly useful the oldest genomes, dating from 45,000 to 35,000 years ago," said molecular anthropologist and study lead author Leonardo Vallini of the University of Padova and the University of Mainz in Germany. The researchers devised a way to disentangle the extensive genetic mixing of populations that has occurred since the dispersal out of the hub in order to pinpoint this region.

There were earlier small-scale excursions of Homo sapiens out of Africa before the pivotal migration 60,000 to 70,000 years ago, but these appear to have been dead-ends. Homo sapiens was not the first human species to live outside of Africa - including the area encompassing the hub. Ancient interbreeding by our species has left a small Neanderthal contribution to the DNA of modern non-Africans. "Neanderthals are attested in the area before the arrival of Homo sapiens, so the hub may well have been where that interaction took place," Vallini said.

fossils from Zhiren Cave in China

Early Humans Reached China 80,000 Years Ago, Before They Reached Europe?

Earliest evidence of modern humans in China — 80,000–120,000 years before present — Fuyan Cave — Teeth were found under rock over which 80,000 years old stalagmites had grown. [Source: Wikipedia +]

In 2015, Chinese scientists announced they discovered 47 teeth from modern humans in Fuyan Cave in southern China's Hunan province that date back at least 80,000 years. Charles Q. Choi wrote in Live Science, “Teeth from a cave in China suggest that modern humans lived in Asia much earlier than previously thought, and tens of thousands of years before they reached Europe, researchers say...Modern humans first originated about 200,000 years ago in Africa. When and how the modern human lineage dispersed from Africa has long been controversial. Previous research suggested the exodus from Africa began between 70,000 and 40,000 years ago. However, recent research hinted that modern humans might have begun their march across the globe as early as 130,000 years ago. [Source: Charles Q. Choi, Live Science, October 14, 2015]

“One place that could shed light on the spread of humanity is southern China, which is dotted with fossil-rich caves. Scientists analyzed modern human teeth that they unearthed in Fuyan Cave in southern China's Hunan province, which is part of a system of caves more than 32,300 square feet (3,000 square meters) in size. Excavations from 2011 to 2013 yielded a trove of 47 human teeth, as well as bones from many other extinct and living animals, such as pandas, hyenas and pigs. The scientists detailed their findings in the Oct. 15 issue of the journal Nature.

“The researchers found these teeth are more than 80,000 years old, and may date back as far as 120,000 years. Until now, fossils from southern China confirmed as older than 45,000 years in age that can be confidently identified as modern human in origin have been lacking. "Our discovery, together with other research findings, suggests southern China should be the key, central area for the emergence and evolution of modern humans in East Asia," the study's co-lead author, Wu Liu, of China's Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, told Live Science.

First Modern Humans in India: 70,000 Years Ago or 50,000 Years Ago?

Jwalapuram, India

Earliest evidence of modern humans in India — 70,000 years before present — Jwalapuram, Andhra Pradesh — Recent finds of stone tools in Jwalapuram before and after the Toba supereruption, may have been made by modern humans, but this is disputed. [Source: Wikipedia +]

Tony Joseph wrote in The Hindu: “When did our species, Homo sapiens, first set foot in India? There are two competing versions of the answer: let’s call them the ‘early version’ and the ‘late version’. The ‘early version’ says they arrived 74,000 to 120,000 years ago from Africa through the Arabian peninsula with Middle Stone Age tools such as scrapers and points that helped them hunt their prey, gather food, or make clothes. The ‘late version’ says they arrived much later, around 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, with upgraded technology such as microlithic (tiny stone) tools that might have been used to give sharp tips to arrows and spears. A geological event separates the two versions: the supervolcanic eruption at Toba in Sumatra, Indonesia, about 74,000 years ago, dumped tonnes of ash all over South-east Asia and South Asia, causing much stress to all life in the region. The ‘early version’ says migrants reached India before Toba; the ‘late version’ says the opposite.” [Source: Tony Joseph, The Hindu, September 5, 2017 |^^|]

Until fairly recently it seemed like late version had the most support. But two studies, published in July and August, 2017 may have changed that. “The first study, led by Professor Chris Clarkson of the University of Queensland, established that modern humans were in Australia by between 59,300 and 70,700 years ago, or, if you take the midpoint, 65,000 years ago. That is about 15,000 years earlier than previous estimates. Prof. Clarkson and his colleagues used the latest techniques to date things left behind by humans at the Madjedbebe caves in Australia’s Northern Territory: mortars and pestles, ground-edge axes, and painting material. |^^|

“The second study, led by archaeologist Dr. Kira Westaway of the Macquarie University, palaeontologist Dr. Julien Louys of the Australian National University, and others had equally remarkable results. They reinvestigated two teeth that had been found in the Lida Ajer caves in Indonesia’s Sumatra island more than a century ago, but whose dating and provenance were disputed. Using the latest multidisciplinary techniques, they have confirmed that the teeth belonged to modern humans who lived 63,000-73,000 years ago, thus pushing back the dates for modern human occupation of South-east Asia by about 20,000 years.

First Humans in Sumatra 70,000 Years Ago

Modern humans were in Sumatra at least 70,000 years. In a study published in Nature in August 2017, scientists said they had accurately dated two human teeth first discovered on the island of Sumatra in the late 19th century, showing our ancestors were living there between 73,000 and 63,000 years ago. Genetic studies have placed humans in Southeast Asia by 60,000 years ago, but the previous oldest fossil evidence dated to just 45,000 years. [Source: Hannah Osborne, Newsweek, Published August 9, 2017]

Hannah Osborne wrote in Newsweek: The teeth were found in the Lida Ajer cave in the Padang Highlands of Sumatra. They are the first evidence of humans in Indonesia and the first evidence of humans occupying a rainforest environment. The finding has surprised archaeologists. Kira Westaway, an environmental scientist at Macquarie University in Australia, told Newsweek, "The earliest evidence for modern humans using rainforests environments [was from] around 45,000 years ago in Niah Cave, Borneo." These regions seem an unlikely place for early humans to live. "Rainforests are difficult environments to live in," says Westaway. "They require technological innovations and sophisticated hunting techniques for survival." This research reveals that people inhabited the rainforest far earlier than previously suspected. "Finding an early modern human presence in a rainforest location is remarkable as it suggests that these skills were in place by this time," says Westaway.

Chris Clarkson, who led the Australian research but was not involved with this work, calls the new discovery very timely. "The dating of fossil modern-human teeth from Lida Ajer 73,000 to 63,000 years ago provides the missing link—that is, the first unequivocal evidence of modern human presence in [Southeast Asia] likely just prior to their first appearance in Australia at 70,000 to 60,000 years ago," says Clarkson, an archaeologist at the University of Queensland. "This is a really fantastic result and will renew the search for modern-human sites in Southeast Asia of comparable age, including evidence of their way of life."

Humans in the Arctic 45,000 Years Ago?

Mongoloid, Negrito and Australoid distribition of Asian peoples

Ann Gibbons wrote in Science: “In August of 2012, an 11-year-old boy made a gruesome discovery in a frozen bluff overlooking the Arctic Ocean. While exploring the foggy coast of Yenisei Bay, about 2000 kilometers south of the North Pole, he came upon the leg bones of a woolly mammoth eroding out of frozen sediments. Scientists excavating the well-preserved creature determined that it had been killed by humans: Its eye sockets, ribs, and jaw had been battered, apparently by spears, and one spear-point had left a dent in its cheekbone—perhaps a missed blow aimed at the base of its trunk. [Source: Ann Gibbons, Science, January 14, 2016 ^]

“When they dated the remains, the researchers got another surprise: The mammoth died 45,000 years ago. That means that humans lived in the Arctic more than 10,000 years earlier than scientists believed, according to a new study. The find suggests that even at this early stage, humans were traversing the most frigid parts of the globe and had the adaptive ability to migrate almost everywhere. ^

“Most researchers had long thought that big-game hunters, who left a trail of stone tools around the Arctic 12,500 years ago, were the first to reach the Arctic Circle. These cold-adapted hunters apparently traversed Siberia and the Bering Straits at least 15,000 years ago (and new dates suggest humans may have been in the Americas as early as 18,500 years ago). But in 2004, researchers pushed that date further back in time when they discovered beads and stone and bone tools dated to as much as 35,000 years old at several sites in the Ural Mountains of far northeastern Europe and in northern Siberia; they also found the butchered carcasses of woolly mammoths, woolly rhinoceros, reindeer, and other animals. The Russian boy’s discovery—of the best-preserved mammoth found in a century—pushes back those dates by another 10,000 years. A team led by archaeologist Alexei Tikhonov excavated the mammoth and dubbed it “Zhenya,” for the child, Evgeniy Solinder, whose nickname was Zhenya. ^

“The big surprise, though, is the age. Radiocarbon dates on the collagen from the mammoth’s tibia bone, as well as from hair and muscle tissue, produce a direct date of 45,000 years, the team reports online today in Science. This fits with dating of the layer of sediments above the carcass, which suggest it was older than 40,000 years. If correct, this means the mammoth was alive during the heyday of woolly mammoths 42,000 to 44,000 years ago when they roamed the vast open grasslands of the northern steppe of the Siberian Arctic, Pitulko says. Researchers also have dated a thighbone of a modern human to 45,000 years at Ust-Ishim in Siberia, although that was found south of the Arctic at a latitude of 57° north, a bit north (and east) of Moscow. “The dating is compelling. It’s likely older than 40,000,” says Douglas Kennett, an environmental archaeologist who is co-director of the Pennsylvania State University, University Park’s accelerator mass spectrometry facility. However, he would like the Russian team to report the method used to rule out contamination of the bone collagen for dating—and confirmation of the dates on the bone by another lab, because the date is so critical for the significance of this discovery. ^

“Mammoths and other large animals, such as woolly rhinoceros and reindeer, may have been the magnet that drew humans to the Far North. “Mammoth hunting was an important part of survival strategy, not only in terms of food, but in terms of important raw materials—tusks, ivory that they desperately needed to manufacture hunting equipment,” Pitulko says. The presence of humans in the Arctic this early also suggests they had the adaptive ability to make tools, warm clothes, and temporary shelters that allowed them to live in the frigid north earlier than thought. They had to adapt to the cold to traverse Siberia and Beringia on their way to the Bering Strait’s land bridge, which they crossed to enter the Americas. “Surviving at those latitudes requires highly specialized technology and extreme cooperation,” Marean agrees. That implies that these were modern humans, rather than Neandertals or other early members of the human family. “If these hunters could survive in the Arctic Circle 45,000 years ago, they could have lived virtually anywhere on Earth,” says Ted Goebel, an archaeologist at Texas A&M University, College Station.” ^

The find also indicates that early Siberians were 4,660 kilometers (2,895 miles) from what was then a land bridge between modern Russia and Alaska. According to the Siberian Times: “A long distance, for sure, but far from insurmountable, opening the possibility that Stone Age Siberians colonised the Americas at this early point.” [Source: Anna Liesowska siberiantimes.com May 30, 2016]

mDNA boundries between South and Southwest Asia

Last updated March 2024

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons except Saudi finger bones, CNN, Zhiren Cave fossils, Science Daily, Middle East migration routes, researchgate

Text Sources: National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Nature, Scientific American. Live Science, Discover magazine, Discovery News, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, The Guardian, Reuters, AP, AFP and various books and other publications.

Last updated March 2024