The Southern Route “Out of Africa”:
Evidence for an Early Expansion
of Modern Humans into Arabia

Simon J. Armitage,1 Sabah A. Jasim,2 Anthony E. Marks,3 Adrian G. Parker,4
Vitaly I. Usik,5 Hans-Peter Uerpmann6*

The timing of the dispersal of anatomically modern humans (AMH) out of Africa is a fundamental question in human evolutionary studies. Existing data suggest a rapid coastal exodus via the Indian Ocean rim around 60,000 years ago. We present evidence from Jebel Faya, United Arab Emirates, demonstrating human presence in eastern Arabia during the last interglacial. The tool kit found at Jebel Faya has affinities to the late Middle Stone Age in northeast Africa, indicating that technological innovation was not necessary to facilitate migration into Arabia. Instead, we propose that low eustatic sea level and increased rainfall during the transition between marine isotope stages 6 and 5 allowed humans to populate Arabia. This evidence implies that AMH may have been present in South Asia before the Toba eruption

Science 28 January 2011:
Vol. 331 no. 6016 pp. 453-456
DOI: 10.1126/science.1199113

See also a discussion paper in Nature:

Archaeology: Trailblazers across Arabia
Michael D. Petraglia
Nature
Volume
470,
50–51
(03 February 2011)
DOI: 10.1038/470050a