Migration of Early Man out of Africa

This research explores the migration of early man out of Africa, including the routes and modes of dispersal. It also discusses the factors that facilitated the migration and the interaction with other species. Data was obtained from secondary sources.

Sociology
Anthropology
Name
Professors’ name
Institution
Date

Sociology
Introduction
Based on archeological as well as anthropological evidence, Homo sapiens are a part of a group
of a group called the Hominids that are believed to be the earliest known like creatures.
Mounting evidence has proven that the Hominids started their initial divergence and separation
away from other primates at least 3 million to 4 million years ago. This separation is known to
have taken place in Africa, the Southern and Eastern parts of Africa to be precise. The Homo
sapiens were a superior group among the Hominids. This is so because despite the fact that came
from the same group with the rest of the other species, the Homo sapiens could walk on two legs.
Archeological evidence clearly shows that migration of man started about 70 thousand to 100
thousand years ago where the early man moved from various parts of the globe especially some
parts of Europe, Asia and Africa.
Some sources have suggested that the first early man migrated put of Africa at least 65 thousand
years ago. This is also in consistent with some evidence that was found regarding their
migration. Some of the tangible evidence that the early man left were the genetic footprints that
are still present today.
Homo sapiens are believed to have first evolved in Africa, the Eastern part of Africa to be
precise. Fossil evidence shows that the earliest human of the Homo sapiens was located at Omro
Kibosh in Ethiopia,
There have been concerns about the migration of modern as well as early humans out of Africa.
This write up seeks to determine the mystery about the migration of humans out of Africa. This
research will look at various issues such as the routes that were taken and the modes of dispersals

Sociology
that were involved. It is also important to note that this research will not use data from primary
sources but rather secondary sources.
Literature Review
Mounting evidence shows that early man migrated from Africa. This is information about aryl
man was obtained from relevant archeological as well as climatic data that pin the early man
from Africa. The proposed theory that the early human being originated from Africa is widely
accepted across various places around the globe because of the circumstantial information and
evidence that has been found to prove that (Fernandes et al 2012). There is a, however, a debate
regarding the exact region where the modern man came from. It is not quite clear where the
modern man originated. Some researchers claim that he originated from North Africa others
claim it is south and some strongly believe that is the Eastern parts of Africa.
This heated argument has been going on for decades now but it is important to note that a theory
which suggests that the modern man came from the Eastern part of Africa is supported by most
of the people (Comas, 2013). This is so because of the mounting evidence that showed upon the
discovery of modern human fossils at a location that was pointed to be Ethiopia. Richard Leaky
is a well-known historian that discovered the remains of the modern man species called Omo
from the Kibosh region in Ethiopia.
It has been proven that modern man migrated from Africa into the other areas of the globe.
Various condition and factors have been known to have hastened the migration of man into the
rest of the world from Africa (Eriksson & Manica, 2012). Some of the factors that have been
known to have facilitated this migration are climate change. Remains from fossils indicate that
the actual movement of early man out of Africa happened much earlier that what people and

Sociology
researchers had thought. The actual movement began around 120 thousand and 90 years ago. It is
important to however note that despite this movement, the actual dispersion did not happen until
60 thousand years ago. The migration is believed to have happened through the now then Sahara
desert. During this time, however, the land was vegetated and had rivers and this really hastened
the migration.
There has always been a question about the possible route that the early man would have used
while he migrated out of Africa (Ziegler et al, 2013). Evidence shows that there are two routes
that the early man would have used while migrating out of Africa; the Northern route through
Egypt and the Southern route through Ethiopia. Findings clearly indicate that there is a high
possibility that the possible rate that could have been used by the modern as he migrated out of
Africa would be the Northern route. Egypt is considered to the possible get away to the rest of
the world by the early man.
It is also believed that in their migration out of Africa, the early man were not the only distinct
two groups of archaic humans that had inhibited Eurasia upon their arrival. The other two groups
that were present during that particular time were the Neanderthals and Denis vans. Upon their
interaction with these two groups the early man interbred and gave rise to a new species Reyes-
(Centeno, 2014).
Another controversy that has existed in the migration of the early man out of Africa is whether
the first modern human to leave Africa was out of one single unique dispersal event or there
were multiple dispersals. Two models exist that provide an explanation of how the migration out
of Africa was. First and foremost, there is the single dispersal model (Marchiori, Maystadt,
Schumacher, 2012). This model dictates that the modern human migrated out of Africa as a

Sociology
single wave the point of exit being either the southern exit through Ethiopia or the Northern exit
through Egypt.
The multiple dispersal models is another model that suggest the modern human migrated out of
Africa not on a single wave but rather a multiple of waves (Lukić & Hey, 2012). This model was
first proposed by Lahr and Foley. In their model, they suggested that in the first dispersal the
modern human used the Southern route through Ethiopia while in the second dispersal modern
man used the Northern route through Egypt where they happened to meet with the Neanderthals.
Method
For this particular research data was not obtained from primary sources such as direct interviews,
use of questionnaires and so on. Data obtained for this research was obtained from secondary
sources such as different scholarly books and articles (Stewart & Stringer, 2012).
Results
Archeological remains obtained indicated that early man migrated out of Africa about 70 to 120
thousand years ago. Various factors have been mentioned that probably hastened the migration
of the early man out of Africa. Some of the factors are climate change as well as the presence of
vegetation in the present Sahara desert (Yang, Malaspinas, Durand, Slatkin, 2012).
In addition to that, mounting evidence has shown that there are two possible routes that the early
man used to migrate out of Africa. The Northern route through Egypt and the Southern route
through Ethiopia.
The early man also interacted with some other species while he was migrating out of Africa.
Some of the early species that he interacted with were the Neanderthals.

Sociology
Discussion
New findings indicate that the early man migrated out of Africa escaping from an extremely dry
climate that had started crouching into the various parts of Africa about 70 thousand to 120
thousand years ago (Ashraf & Galor, 2013). This new findings have shown a high degree of
contradiction in comparison to previous studies that indicated the early man migrated out of
Africa because of the aid of the wet-climate that allowed them to smoothly cross the Horn Africa
into various parts of the globe.
According to this new evidence that suggests that the early man migrated out of Africa as a result
of the dry climate, the migration happened between 70 thousand to 120 thousand years ago (Rito,
, 2012).This study carefully examines the regions climate during this time in history. An
examination of the climatic condition provides some evidence that indeed early migrated out of
Africa because of the dry climate.
A research of the climate of the Horn of Africa during that time was achieved through a careful
analysis of some core of the ocean sediment that was taken at the ends of the Gulf of Aden , the
present day Somalia. According to the chief analyst Jessica Tierney, the early man definitely
migrated out of the region because of the nature of climatic changes (Flahaux & De Haas, 2016).
The core of the ocean clearly indicates that despite the additional despite the drying that was
happening during that time, the climate was also getting cooler. Jessica Tierney strongly suggests
that the migration was affected at by a very great impact on some environmental factors.
Actually the early man left Africa mainly because the environmental was deteriorating (Reyes-
Centen et al, 2014).This information was obtained through a test of the temperatures and rainfall
records form a very special type of organic matter that was initially preserved in the sediment

Sociology
layer. It is also important to note that a sediment layer for chemicals called alkenes that were
actually made by a certain kind of marine algae was used so as to construct a long-term
temperature record.
In examining the rainfall patterns during the time of the migration approximately 70 to 120
thousand years ago, the researchers the remains of leaf wax that had originally are blown into the
ocean form different terrestrial plant. The results obtained from this analysis showed that during
the time of migration the fluctuation in rainfall patterns and there was a very big shift to a
climate that was much drier and colder (Comas, 2013).
Based on all this evidence that was obtained from this analysis of the various climatic conditions
and patterns, it was concluded that it was dry when the early man moved out of Africa into the
rest of the world.
Another aspect that is known to have triggered the migration of the early human being is the
issue of the greening of the Sahara It is believe that climatic changes affecting tie greening of the
Sahara desert as well as the Sahel region (Pagani et al, 2016). Evidence shows that the Sahara
and the Sahel regions were considerable wetter. This condition facilitated the growth of trees and
not grasses. Based on an analysis that was conducted on plant leaf waxes the researchers were in
a position to determine the role of trees as well as grasses the regions of Sahara desert and Sahel.
Conclusion
The migration of the early man out of Africa was a gradual process that happened in a multiple
wave and not a single dispersal wave as some books suggest. There were two routes that were
used in the migration out of Africa and that is the Northern route and the Southern route across
(Ethiopia Pagani et al 2015).

Sociology
In addition to this, as mentioned earlier, a number of factors hastened the migration of early man
out of Africa. Some of the factors are climate change as well as the presence of vegetation in the
present Sahara dessert.
Various dispersal models were have been used to explain course of your migration. The two
models were the single model theory and the multiple modern theories. The multiple dispersal
suggested that suggest the modern human migrated out of Africa not on a single wave but rather
a multiple of waves. This model was first proposed by Lahr and Foley (Henn, Cavalli-Sforza,
Feldman, 2012). In their model, they suggested that in the first dispersal the modern human used
the Southern route through Ethiopia while in the second dispersal modern man used the Northern
route through Egypt where they happened to meet with the Neanderthals.
The single model on the other hand suggested that there was just a single wave that was used by
early man to migrate out of Africa.

Sociology
References
Ashraf, Q., & Galor, O. (2013). The'Out of Africa'hypothesis, human genetic diversity, and
comparative economic development. American Economic Review, 103(1), 1-46.
Comas, I., Coscolla, M., Luo, T., Borrell, S., Holt, K. E., Kato-Maeda, M., ... & Yeboah-Manu,
D. (2013). Out-of-Africa migration and Neolithic coexpansion of Mycobacterium
tuberculosis with modern humans. Nature genetics, 45(10), 1176.
Eriksson, A., & Manica, A. (2012). Effect of ancient population structure on the degree of
polymorphism shared between modern human populations and ancient
hominins. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(35), 13956-13960.
Fernandes, V., Alshamali, F., Alves, M., Costa, M. D., Pereira, J. B., Silva, N. M., ... & Richards,
M. B. (2012). The Arabian cradle: mitochondrial relicts of the first steps along the
southern route out of Africa. The American Journal of Human Genetics, 90(2), 347-355.
Flahaux, M. L., & De Haas, H. (2016). African migration: trends, patterns, drivers. Comparative
Migration Studies, 4(1), 1.
Henn, B. M., Botigué, L. R., Gravel, S., Wang, W., Brisbin, A., Byrnes, J. K., ... & Bustamante,
C. D. (2012). Genomic ancestry of North Africans supports back-to-Africa
migrations. PLoS genetics, 8(1), e1002397.
Henn, B. M., Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., & Feldman, M. W. (2012). The great human
expansion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(44), 17758-17764.
Lukić, S., & Hey, J. (2012). Demographic inference using spectral methods on SNP data, with an
analysis of the human out-of-Africa expansion. Genetics, 192(2), 619-639.

Sociology
Marchiori, L., Maystadt, J. F., & Schumacher, I. (2012). The impact of weather anomalies on
migration in sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of Environmental Economics and
Management, 63(3), 355-374.
Pagani, L., Lawson, D. J., Jagoda, E., Mörseburg, A., Eriksson, A., Mitt, M., ... & Wall, J. D.
(2016). Genomic analyses inform on migration events during the peopling of
Eurasia. Nature, 538(7624), 238.
Pagani, L., Schiffels, S., Gurdasani, D., Danecek, P., Scally, A., Chen, Y., ... & Mekonnen, E.
(2015). Tracing the route of modern humans out of Africa by using 225 human genome
sequences from Ethiopians and Egyptians. The American Journal of Human
Genetics, 96(6), 986-991.
Reyes-Centeno, H., Ghirotto, S., Détroit, F., Grimaud-Hervé, D., Barbujani, G., & Harvati, K.
(2014). Genomic and cranial phenotype data support multiple modern human dispersals
from Africa and a southern route into Asia. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, 111(20), 7248-7253.
Rito, T., Richards, M. B., Fernandes, V., Alshamali, F., Cerny, V., Pereira, L., & Soares, P.
(2013). The first modern human dispersals across Africa. PloS one, 8(11), e80031.
Stewart, J. R., & Stringer, C. B. (2012). Human evolution out of Africa: the role of refugia and
climate change. Science, 335(6074), 1317-1321.
Timmermann, A., & Friedrich, T. (2016). Late Pleistocene climate drivers of early human
migration. Nature, 538(7623), 92.

Sociology
Yang, M. A., Malaspinas, A. S., Durand, E. Y., & Slatkin, M. (2012). Ancient structure in Africa
unlikely to explain Neanderthal and non-African genetic similarity. Molecular biology
and evolution, 29(10), 2987-2995.
Ziegler, M., Simon, M. H., Hall, I. R., Barker, S., Stringer, C., & Zahn, R. (2013). Development
of Middle Stone Age innovation linked to rapid climate change. Nature
communications, 4, 1905.