quote:A combination of evidence, based on genetic, fossil and archaeological findings, indicates that Homo sapiens spread out of Africa between ~70-60 thousand years ago (kya). However, it appears that once outside of Africa, human populations did not expand across all of Eurasia until ~45 kya. The geographic whereabouts of these early settlers in the timeframe between ~70-60 to 45 kya has been difficult to reconcile. Here we combine genetic evidence and palaeoecological models to infer the geographic location that acted as the Hub for our species during the early phases of colonisation of Eurasia. Leveraging on available genomic evidence we show that populations from the Persian Plateau carry an ancestry component that closely matches the population that settled the Hub outside Africa. With the paleoclimatic data available to date, we built ecological models showing that the Persian Plateau was suitable for human occupation and that it could sustain a larger population compared to other West Asian regions, strengthening this claim.
And the area in green is where they postulate the hypothetical Basal Eurasian population resided:
quote:In light yellow, within the black frame, are geographic locations that are putative Hub focal areas and predicted habitable areas. The areas are compiled on the basis of at least 90% of the time intervals inspected by our palaeoclimatic analysis or those located along major rivers. In green are the habitable areas that might have hosted the Basal Eurasian population.
The shallow waters of the inland sea known as the Persian Gulf might well hold the evidence of the earliest human migrations out of Africa, says Jeffrey Rose, an archaeologist and researcher with the UK’s University of Birmingham. In a paper called ‘New Light on Human Prehistory in the Arabo-Persian Gulf Oasis’, published in Current Anthropology (51:6 December 2010), Rose argues that highly developed settlements arose ‘out of nowhere’ around the shores of the Gulf about 7,500 years ago. This corresponds with the flooding of the Persian Gulf basin around 8,000 years by the Indian Ocean, and the obvious conclusion is that the new settlements are those of displaced populations who escaped the inundation.
Rose has plotted some 60 new archaeological sites that appear on the shores of the Gulf after this event, where previously there had only been a handful of scattered hunting camps. ‘These settlements boast well-built, permanent stone houses, long-distance trade networks, elaborately decorated pottery, domesticated animals, and even evidence for one of the oldest boats in the world,’ Rose says, before asking: ‘how could such highly developed settlements pop up so quickly, with no precursor populations to be found in the archaeological record? These new colonists may have come from the heart of the Gulf, displaced by rising water levels that plunged the once fertile landscape beneath the waters of the Indian Ocean.’
Sea level data show that, prior to the flood, the Gulf basin would have been an ideal refuge from the harsh deserts surrounding it, with fresh water supplied by the Tigris, Euphrates, Karun, and Wadi Baton Rivers, as well as by underground springs. This well-watered and fertile landmass may well have been host to early migrants out of Africa, and would have provided ‘a sanctuary throughout the Ice Ages when much of the region was rendered uninhabitable due to hyperaridity’, Rose said.Posts: 26422 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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