WASHINGTON us. Human beings first emerged in Africa more than 3;00.000 years ago they began migrating out of the continent about 60,000- 70.000 years ago. But, where did they go after they left Africa? After years of debate a new study has some answers to offer. According to it these hunter-gatherers appear to have lingered for thousands of years as a homogenous population in a geographic hub that spanned Iran, parts of Iraq. And Saudi Arabia before going to settle in all of Asia and Europe about 45,000 years ago.
These findings are based on genomic datasets drawn from ancient DNA and modern gene pools, combined with palaeoecological 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 onwant to more distant locales.
“Our results provule the first full picture of the whereabouts of the ancestors of all present-day non-Africans.” said Luca Pagani, senior author of the study. The combination of genetic and pale ecological models allowed us to predict the location where early human populations first resided as soon as they eated Africa,” said co-author Michael Petraglia.
How they lived
These people lived in small mobile bands of huntergatherers, the researchen 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 practised a seasonal lifestyle laing 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, Pagani said their eventual dispersal in different directions set the basis for the genetic divergence between present-day East Asians and Europeans, the researchers said
Homo sapiens was not the first human species to live outside of Africa-induding the area encompassing the hub Neanderthals are attested in the area before the armsal of Homo sapiens. The hub may have been where the two species met.
Picture Credit: Google
