Ancient Humans Remains From Greece Baffle Scientists

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Hundreds of theories about ancient human migrations are being threatened by a recent discovery. It is thought that the migration of archaic humans from Africa to other parts of the world had started almost 2 million years ago. Homo erectus were the first hominids to migrate.

Homo heidelbergensis was the second to leave Africa (around 500,000 years ago) and seek other territories to live on. Homo sapiens flourished in the Horn of Africa around 300,000-200,000 years ago and it is believed that they crossed the land bridge between Africa and Europe around 130,000 to 115,000 years ago.

There is a “recent African origin” theory which declares that modern humans were the descendants of Homo sapiens what migrated from Africa 70,000 years ago and went east towards Asia and Oceania around 50,000 years ago. Modern humans dispersed all over Europe around 40,000 years ago.

Ancient Humans Remains From Greece Baffle Scientists

That data might change along with the recent discovery. A team comprised of researchers at the University of Tübingen and the University of Athens found modern human remains in Greece. These are the oldest human remains in Greece and suggest that ancient humans migrated out of Africa much earlier than previously thought.

In the 1970s, some skill remnants were discovered in a cave in Greece. The remnants, which received the name Apidima 1, belonged to a Homo sapiens that had been living in that area almost 210,000 years ago. In the same cave were found other skull pieces, this time from a Neanderthal, a relative of Homo sapiens. Apidima 2, the Neanderthal, was 40,000 younger than the other hominid.

Paleoanthropologist Katerina Harvati, from the University of Tübingen, commented that the findings show that Homo Sapiens might have left Africa earlier than believed. They also dispersed to a lot more territories. The researchers reached the conclusion that there wasn’t only one exit of ancient humans from Africa, but several. Some of the groups settled in Europe, Asia, Australia, Siberia, and North Africa, while others would have occupied territory for a short period of time before going further to new places.

Doris’s passion for writing started to take shape in college where she was editor-in-chief of the college newspaper. Even though she ended up working in IT for more than 7 years, she’s now back to what he always enjoyed doing. With a true passion for technology, Doris mostly covers tech-related topics.