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06-12-2013, 03:15 PM
An archaeological row over when exactly mankind began leaving Africa has intensified with a new study dismissing one of the main theories.
New genetic and archaeological findings suggest mankind only left Africa within the last 60,000 years rather than up to 120,000 years ago, according to a study.
The two main theories for the timing of exodus put it either side of the Mount Toba supereruption of about 74,000 years ago but one of them, according to the study, is worthless.
In an unusually strong scientific put-down, archaeologists involved in the latest study claim the theory that Man left Africa the before the volcanic eruption has 'no evidence'.
Genetic evidence, they say, only backs up the idea that man left Africa within the last 60,000 years.
Had colonisation of South East Asia and other parts of the world taken place much earlier, there would have been genetic traces surviving today.
The 'lack of any discernable evidence' of such genetic traces, said the researchers, 'poses a final obstacle to the hypothesis of an early, pre-Toba modern human colonization of South Asia'.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2339067/Archaeologists-use-new-study-slam-idea-mankind-quick-Africa.html#ixzz2W10jkKms
New genetic and archaeological findings suggest mankind only left Africa within the last 60,000 years rather than up to 120,000 years ago, according to a study.
The two main theories for the timing of exodus put it either side of the Mount Toba supereruption of about 74,000 years ago but one of them, according to the study, is worthless.
In an unusually strong scientific put-down, archaeologists involved in the latest study claim the theory that Man left Africa the before the volcanic eruption has 'no evidence'.
Genetic evidence, they say, only backs up the idea that man left Africa within the last 60,000 years.
Had colonisation of South East Asia and other parts of the world taken place much earlier, there would have been genetic traces surviving today.
The 'lack of any discernable evidence' of such genetic traces, said the researchers, 'poses a final obstacle to the hypothesis of an early, pre-Toba modern human colonization of South Asia'.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2339067/Archaeologists-use-new-study-slam-idea-mankind-quick-Africa.html#ixzz2W10jkKms