out of Africa human dispersals

Published ages of >50 ka for occupation at Madjedbebe (Malakunanja II) in Australia's north have kept the site prominent in discussions about the colonisation of Sahul. The site also contains one of the largest stone artefact assemblages in Sahul for this early period. However, the stone artefacts and other important archaeological components of the site have never been described in detail, leading to persistent doubts about its stratigraphic integrity. We report on our analysis of the stone artefacts and faunal and other materials recovered during the 1989 excavations, as well as the stratigraphy and depositional history recorded by the original excavators. We demonstrate that the technology and raw materials of the early assemblage are distinctive from those in the overlying layers. Silcrete and quartzite artefacts are common in the early assemblage, which also includes edge-ground axe fragments and ground haematite. The lower flaked stone assemblage is distinctive, comprising a mix of long convergent flakes, some radial flakes with faceted platforms, and many small thin silcrete flakes that we interpret as thinning flakes. Residue and use-wear analysis indicate occasional grinding of haematite and woodworking, as well as frequent abrading of platform edges on thinning flakes. We conclude that previous claims of extensive displacement of artefacts and post-depositional disturbance may have been overstated. The stone artefacts and stratigraphic details support previous claims for human occupation 50 e60 ka and show that human occupation during this time differed from later periods. We discuss the implications of these new data for understanding the first human colonisation of Sahul.

This study applies phylogenetic software to motifs connected with the Pleiades as identified in Yuri Berezkin’s database, The Analytical Catalogue of World Mythology and Folklore. The aim of analysis is to determine which, if any, of the analysed motifs are likely to have spread in conjunction with the earliest migrations out of Africa and to the Americas. The Pleiades analysis is compared to an analysis of Orion motifs.

The Middle Stone Age (MSA) of Africa encompasses the archaeological background for the origin, early evolution and global dispersal of Homo sapiens. This dissertation project used behavioral information attained from the analysis of MSA stone artifacts, in concert with additional archaeological data and new theoretical concepts, to assess research questions pertaining to key issues in current MSA archaeology and human evolution: What is the nature of coastal adaptations during the MSA and how did they affect the evolution and dispersal of Homo sapiens? Did modern humans in southern Africa possess a less complex behavioral repertoire and inferior cultural abilities before and after the Still Bay (SB) and Howiesons Poort (HP) as suggested by the influential “Synthetic Model”? To what extent can analyses of stone tools from the late MSA inform early migrations of Homo sapiens out of Africa? Lithic assemblages from six southern African MSA sites, dating to MIS 5 and MIS 3, provide the principle empirical basis to answer these questions. Concerning the first research topic, based on analyses on the site (Hoedjiespunt 1), regional (sub-Saharan Africa) and continental levels (Africa), the findings of this dissertation demonstrate the systematic, stable and long-term character of MSA coastal adaptations by at least MIS 5e. These behavioral adaptations had ample potential to affect the biological and cultural evolution of Homo sapiens. The ability to thrive in variable coastal ecosystems, and a general increase in behavior flexibility, constituted necessary prerequisites to disperse out of Africa along a mainly coastal route in a rapid and successful manner after ~130 ka. Lithic analyses at the main study site of Sibudu revealed the presence of distinctive, sophisticated and structured stone artifact assemblages during MIS 3 which are used to refine the concept of the “Sibudan” as a new cultural-taxonomic unit of the MSA. Comparative analyses suggest increased regionalization of lithic technology in southern Africa during MIS 3, the maintenance of advanced lithic technology and complex cultural repertoires, as well as dense populations in some areas. These findings reject the dominant Synthetic Model by showing that complex behaviors were well-established in human populations before and after the HP and SB. The results also falsify ideas of cultural regression and demographic collapses after the HP. Regarding the third major topic, the thesis shows how the phenomenon of convergence can confound the common approach by Paleolithic archaeologists to track large-scale dispersals of modern humans out of Africa by means of stone artifacts. The demonstration of an independent innovation of “Nubian” core technology during MIS 3 in southern Africa, with these artifact types having recently been used to monitor the earliest migrations of modern humans from north-eastern Africa to Arabia, provides a cautionary example that single core or tool types cannot adequately trace such dispersals on large temporal and spatial scales. Apart from providing new insights into the evolution and dispersal of modern humans, the thesis highlights the need for novel approaches in lithic analyses and a holistic bio-cultural perspective on human evolution.

The goal of this paper is to apply the phylogenetic method to a set of mythological traditions, allowing the reconstruction of the social beliefs and practices related to sexuality known just before the Out of Africa process. Berezkin’s database (section F, devoted to sexuality) has been used. The first dataset included a set of traditions sharing each motif (at least two) with at least one other tradition (i.e. 122 ethnic groups for 122 motifs). The second dataset retained the 29 ethnic groups (for 105 motifs) including at least 12 motifs. The distance of each tradition from Africa was obtained using data from Fort and Pérez-Losada (2016). The calculation of the Pearson and Spearman correlations shows a strong influence of distance from Africa on the variability of the mythological traditions, explaining from 31 to 47% of the observed variance. The mid-point rooting of the tree built with MrBayes 3.2.7 puts Bulgarians, Romanians, Russians, Germans, Frenchs and Finns (i.e. the closest geographical traditions in Africa) as an exogroup. Three motifs reconstructed using a parcimony tree build with Mesquite were probably known before the Out of Africa process: F7 «The man takes or tries to take as his wife a being linked to the underwater world (fish, crab, snake, aquatic animal, etc.)»; F9 «For various reasons, sexual contact with a woman is fatal to a man» and F45 «There are (or have been) women living apart from men in their own village(s).» The analysis of the motif F7 with the contribution of other elements, such as the southern diffusion of patrilocality around the world, supports the existence of patrilocality before the Out-of-Africa episode.

The evolution of modern humans was a complex process, involving major changes in levels of diversity through time. The fossils and stone tools that record the spatial distribution of our species in the past form the backbone of our evolutionary history, and one that allows us to explore the different processes—cultural and biological—that acted to shape the evolution of different populations in the face of major climate change. Those processes created a complex palimpsest of similarities and differences, with outcomes that were at times accelerated by sharp demographic and geographical fluctuations. The result is that the population ancestral to all modern humans did not look or behave like people alive today. This has generated questions regarding the evolution of human universal characters, as well as the nature and timing of major evolutionary events in the history of Homo sapiens. The paucity of African fossils remains a serious stumbling block for exploring some of these issues. However, fossil and archaeological discoveries increasingly clarify important aspects of our past, while breakthroughs from genomics and palaeogenomics have revealed aspects of the demography of Late Quaternary Eurasian hominin groups and their interactions, as well as those between for-agers and farmers. This paper explores the nature and timing of key moments in the evolution of human diversity, moments in which population collapse followed by differential expansion of groups set the conditions for transitional periods. Five transitions are identified (i) at the origins of the species, 240–200 ka; (ii) at the time of the first major expansions, 130–100 ka; (iii) during a period of dispersals, 70–50 ka; (iv) across a phase of local/regional structuring of diversity, 45–25 ka; and (v) during a phase of significant extinction of hunter–gatherer diversity and expansion of particular groups, such as farmers and later societies (the Holocene Filter), 15–0 ka. This article is part of the themed issue 'Major transitions in human evolution'.

The lower levels of the archaeological sequence of Kozarnika cave (north-western Bulgaria) provide levels with non-Acheulian core-and-flake (as opposed to pebble-core) industries. Associations with numerous taxa of large mammals indicate that the date of the lower layers of the cave falls between MNQ17 and MNQ19. These layers produced several bones showing anthropic traces. Its date and geographical position place Kozarnika cave as a landmark site in the primary phase of the settlement of Europe.

The population history of Aboriginal Australians remains largely uncharacterized. Here we generate high-coverage genomes for 83 Aboriginal Australians (speakers of Pama–Nyungan languages) and 25 Papuans from the New Guinea Highlands. We find that Papuan and Aboriginal Australian ancestors diversified 25–40 thousand years ago (kya), suggesting pre-Holocene population structure in the ancient continent of Sahul (Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania). However,
all of the studied Aboriginal Australians descend from a single founding population that differentiated ~10–32 kya. We infer a population expansion in northeast Australia during the Holocene epoch (past 10,000 years) associated with limited gene flow from this region to the rest of Australia, consistent with the spread of the Pama–Nyungan languages. We estimate that Aboriginal Australians and Papuans diverged from Eurasians 51–72 kya, following a single out-of-Africa
dispersal, and subsequently admixed with archaic populations. Finally, we report evidence of selection in Aboriginal Australians potentially associated with living in the desert.

Among the several main reasons for the present gradual demise of the hitherto dominant hypotheses of 'modern' human origins, the replacement or 'out of Africa' models, are the issues of genetic drift and introgression. The operation and consequences of genetic drift are considered, especially in terms of their effects on the evolution of the human species during the Late Pleistocene period. The complexity of the subject is reviewed in the light of several relevant frames of reference, such as those provided by niche construction, gene-culture co-evolutionary theories, and by the domestication hypothesis. The current cultural, genetic and paleoanthropological evidence is reviewed, as well as other germane factors, such as the role of neurodegenerative pathologies, the neotenization of humans in their most recent evolutionary history, and the question of cultural selection-based self-domestication. This comprehensive review leads to a paradigmatic shift in the way recent human evolution needs to be viewed. This article explains fully how humans became what they are today.

SPECIAL FILE
FOR A DISCUSSION SESSION ON ACADEMIA.edu

This file gives you the introduction of what is the first part of a long research that has been going on for most of my life and has been progressively intensified since 2005 when I moved to Paris Sorbonne, and other Paris private or public universities.

This first part counts seven chapters.

CHAPTER ONE: The Triple Articulation of Language
CHAPTER TWO: Philogeny and Migrations
CHAPTER THREE: Agglutinative Language
CHAPTER FOUR: Theo Vennemann
CHAPTER FIVE: The Migrations
CHAPTER SIX: Darwinization in Question
CHAPTER SEVEN: Where Gustave Guillaume Meets with Sally McBrearty

This long introduction gives all the concepts and procedures used in the research. I submit this file for discussion before the publication of the whole work (the first part only though, seven chapters). The second part is ready to go through its final proof reading and assessment, which will take at least six months of hard work.

I hope you enjoy reading these pages and I hope you take part in the discussion. I will integrate, in a way or another, all remarks or contributions in the final published work. At the present moment the manuscript counts 372 pages with 347 pages of text and 23 pages of notes (514 notes so far), and 228,379 words at (the) last count.

I have added some pictures in this introduction to make it easier to read. These pictures are all rock face paintings dated, most of them, from before the Ice Age, from all over the world. The oldest are from Indonesia and those from Baja California are undated due so far to the fact that the colors used by the people who painted these rocks do not contain any charcoal or carbon. More advanced dating procedure have not yet been used. The meaning is clear: no matter where these Homo Sapiens migrated they took along with them one or several languages, first, and some other capabilities, abilities and competences that made them do very similar things in very different conditions. Homo Sapiens has always been a communicational being with articulated languages and appetency for spiritual and artistic endeavors.

I consider that was unique with Homo Sapiens though some other Hominins had varying degrees of such tools and potentials, but apparently none equaled Homo Sapiens’ survival capability.

Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU
Olliergues July 2, 2017
(Ivan Eve being on a journey around the world with his love partner)

Abstract : Various statistical methods are applied to mythological motifs to reconstruct the phylogeny of tales that describe primitive matriarchies. The results show a correlation between spread of myths and spread of genes, and allow to identify the form of this mythology before the out-of-Africa migration. This makes it possible to reject some assumptions about interpretation of rock art.

Résumé : Diverses méthodes statistiques sont appliquées à des motifs mythologiques afin de reconstruire la phylogénie des récits évoquant un matriarcat primitif. Les résultats montrent une corrélation entre diffusion des mythes et diffusion des gènes, et permettent d’identifier la forme adoptée par cette mythologie avant la sortie d’Afrique de l’homme moderne. Ils permettent également de rejeter certaines hypothèses interprétatives portant sur l’art rupestre.

In any discussion of hominin dispersal it is possible, and important, to examine the event at many different scales. This paper examines the initial dispersal out of Africa at the scale of populations rather than species, looks at dispersal between ecological zones rather than continents, and considers dispersal within Africa prior to any dispersal out of Africa. Before hominins could disperse out of Africa they needed to disperse out of their likely area of endemism in sub-Saharan Africa to North Africa, the most likely departure point for Eurasia. Prior to the Middle Pleistocene, successful long term colonizations of North Africa by hominins were very rare, and apparently less successful than their colonizations of Eurasia. The Early Pleistocene hominin dispersal into Eurasia was most probably along the western coast of the Red Sea. The ability of hominins to successfully disperse into Eurasia and successfully colonize northern continents was made possible by the ecological and climatic diversity within Africa.

The peopling of America is perhaps one of the longest and most controversial debates in world archaeology, and South America has played a central role in this debate. There have been several competing models for the first peopling of the Americas, although excepting the hypothesis of an Atlantic-Solutrean migration (Stanford and Bradley 2012), there is major agreement among archaeologists and ancient genetics that the first colonizers entered America from North Eastern Asia via the Behring Land Bridge and shorelines.  South America is fundamental to this basic agreement and is considered the final step in the continent’s colonization. This paper aims to discuss the current state of the debate on the early peopling of America in the light of South American evidence.

We present an Aboriginal Australian genomic sequence obtained from a 100-year-old lock of hair donated by an Aboriginal man from southern Western Australia in the early 20th century. We detect no evidence of European admixture and estimate contamination levels to be below 0.5%. We show that Aboriginal Australians are descendants of an early human dispersal into eastern Asia, possibly 62,000 to 75,000 years ago. This dispersal is separate from the one that gave rise to modern Asians 25,000 to 38,000 years ago. We also find evidence of gene flow between populations of the two dispersal waves prior to the divergence of Native Americans from modern Asian ancestors. Our findings support the hypothesis that present-day Aboriginal Australians descend from the earliest humans to occupy Australia, likely representing one of the oldest continuous populations outside Africa.

The Multiregional Model of modern human origins predicts that a group of features, recognized as characterizing the evolution of regional populations from their archaic regional ancestors, will consistently show higher incidence in those regions. This model also predicts that regional morphological patterns are stable, reflecting absence of geographical isolation. In order to test these assumptions, the incidence and distribution of the regional features proposed to characterize the evolution of Chinese and Javanese Homo erectus into modern Chinese and Australian aborigines respectively were examined. The material studied were five recent populations and a fossil sample of anatomically modern Homo sapiens from the sites of Afalou and Taforalt. For this, a scoring system of grades was developed, so as to allow quantification and statistical testing. These analyses showed first, that although the majority of the features studied present a regional pattern, this pattern does not always correspond to that proposed by the model; and second, that some of these features occur in other populations with a higher frequency. Furthermore, the lack of special resemblance betwen the North African fossils and recent Africans suggest high levels of population differentiation. These results indicate that these features do not support a multiregional origin, giving further support to the existing fossil, chronological and genetic evidence for a single African origin of all modern humans.

The use of non-recombining DNA and the phylogeographic approach, based on reconstructed gene-trees , has illuminated the geography of the exit route of anatomically modern humans (AMH ), their further travels, and the logic of only one ultimately successful exit from sub-Saharan Africa – likely via the Yemen, around 72 ka (Oppenheimer 2012a ). However, there are competing archaeo-genetic views of multiple exits (Underhill et al. 2001 ; Rasmussen et al. 2011 ). Chronometric predictions based solely on genetic data have systematic problems, the most
important being calibration and wide confi dence intervals, and so need testing against more accurate data from archaeology, palaeoanthropology and the earth sciences. Several recent papers and books off er new climatic, fossil, lithic and genetic evidence for earlier exits of AMH, before the great Toba volcanic eruption of 73 ka (Younger Toba Event [YTE]) (Petraglia et al. 2007, 2011; Oppenheimer 2003 , 2009 ; Rosenberg et al. 2011), and even as long ago as the last interglacial , that is, up to 50,000 years before the YTE (Petraglia et al. 2010 , 2011 ; see also Groucutt & Petraglia, this volume; Liu et al. 2010b ; Armitage et al. 2011 ; Cabrera et al. 2009 [cited as genetic evidence in Petraglia et al. 2010 ]; Rose et al. 2011 ). In contrast, others argue for a later movement of modern humans north to Europe and east to India (e.g., Mellars 2006b ; 2006c).

Over 150,000 years ago a group of ancient
humans lived in the lands of central Africa.
From this single group, whose descendants
journeyed out of Africa to the far reaches of
the continents in search of greener pastures,
every single human of every ‘race’ on Earth is
descended.

ÖZET
Anadolu ve Kafkasya bir taraftan Paleolitik yaşama elverişli yeryüzü şekilleri, iklimi ve hammadde kaynakları açısından tercih edilebilir coğrafyalar olmakla birlikte diğer taraftan Afrika’daki mevcudiyetini çeşitli sebeplerle bu coğrafyanın dışına çıkarmak durumunda olan erken Homo türleri için aşılması gerekli olan coğrafyalar olarak dikkat çekmektedirler. Söz konusu coğrafyalar çerçevesinde insan etkinliklerinin ortaya koyulabilmesi adına insan fosilleri ile birlikte kültürel ögeler ve insan yaşamını işaret eden diğer parametreler ele alınmış, Anadolu ve Kafkasya’nın Afrika’dan Avrupa’ya geçiş için ne derece önemli olduğu ortaya koyulmuştur. Anadolu ve Kafkasya’nın bugünkü güçlü kanıtlara göre Afrika’dan dünyaya yayıldığını kabul ettiğimiz erken Homo türlerinin güzergâhındaki ilk duraklardan olduğu sabit kılınmış ve Pleistosen içerisinde güçlü ilişkilere sahip olduğu kanısı desteklenmiştir.

SUMMARY
Anatolia and the Caucasus are preferable geographies with suitable landforms, climate and raw material resources for Paleolithic life, while the other side is the geographies that need to be overcome for the early Homo species which have to extend their presence out of Africa for various reasons. Within the context of geographies, human fossils as well as cultural elements and other parameters which is point to human life are discussed in order to be able to reveal human activities and it is revealed how important Anatolia and Caucasia are for the transition from Africa to Europe. According to today's strong evidence, Anatolia and the Caucasus are stable areas for the first stops on the route of early Homo species, which we admit that they have spread from Africa to the world, and we strongly supported that the geographies had strong relations each other in the Pleistocene.

Abstract: Part of mythology (tales of cosmic catastrophes) changes with distance from Africa. Data on motifs' inventory were taken from Berezkin's database (motifs C1-C32 ; http://ruthenia. ru/folklore/berezkin) and were coded in the form of a binary matrix. The Jaccard distance was calculated between each mythology and the nearest mythology from Africa (Bulgaria), and the results were plotted against the geographic distance from Africa to each mythology. Distance from an African origin alone explains between 8% and 32% of the variation in mythological diversity (according to different factors such as the database's size or the deletion of certain linguistic families; table 1; Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients). The correlation increases significantly when only mythologies with a higher number of motifs were retained for analysis (triangles in the map). These mythologies are essentially located in Northern Eurasia and America and this increase suggests a mythological diffusion from the Near East / Balkans through Northern Eurasia to Northern America during the Paleolithic period. Phylogenetic trees were build from the same database (UPGMA ; NJ ; heuristic search with parcimony algorithm then agreement subtree via PAUP*) and the midpoint roots found in these trees corroborate a southwestern origin of a great part of the Eurasian mythology. The extrapolation back in time from current mythologies based on a majority rule consensus tree (via Mesquite; reconstruction using different roots and different methods; table 2) allows to recover the following primitive motifs : ‘‘A person or animal dives to the bottom of the water to bring something back’’ ; ‘‘A bird brings something from the bottom of the water’’ ; ‘‘A person or a creature dives to the bottom of the water or into the infra-world to bring back a solid substance that will become the Earth’’; ‘‘The first ancestors acquired with difficulty the sun, that was hidden or stolen’’ ; ‘‘Cutting nails or hair has a special meaning as to the fate of the soul or the future of the whole world’’. All these motifs (except the last one) have been independently identified as having a Paleolithic origin by other searchers, using different databases and methods of analysis.

Résumé: Une partie de la mythologie (touchant aux catastrophes cosmiques) a progressivement évolué en étant diffusée loin d'Afrique. Dans cet article, une base de données mythologiques a été codée sous la forme d'une matrice binaire. La distance de Jaccard a été calculée entre chaque mythologie et la mythologie la plus proche géographiquement de l'Afrique, avant que les résultats soient comparés à la distance géographique séparant chaque mythologie de l'Afrique. La distance depuis une origine afri-caine explique entre 8 % et 32 % de la variation de la diversité mythologique (la variabilité dépendant de différents facteurs tels que la taille de la base de données ou la suppression de cer-taines familles linguistiques). La corrélation augmente de manière significative quand seules les mythologies avec un nombre plus élevé de motifs sont retenues pour l'analyse. De telles mythologies se situent essentiellement dans le nord de l'Eurasie et de l'Amérique, et cette augmentation suggère une diffusion mythologique paléolithique, du Proche-Orient / des Balkans à l'Amérique du Nord via le nord de l'Eurasie. Plusieurs arbres phylogénétiques ont été construits à partir de la base de données et l'enracinement médian de ces arbres corrobore une origine de cette mytho-ogie en Eurasie du Sud-Ouest. Les motifs reconstruits à la base de l'arbre sont les suivants : « Une personne ou un animal plonge au fond de l'eau pour en ramener quelque chose » ; « Un oiseau ramène quelque chose du fond de l'eau » ; « Une personne ou une créature plonge au fond de l'eau ou dans l'infra-monde pour en ramener une substance solide qui deviendra la Terre » ; « Les premiers ancêtres ont acquis avec difficulté le soleil, alors caché ou encore volé » et « Le fait de couper les ongles ou les cheveux a une signification spéciale quant au destin de l'âme ou le futur du monde entier ». Tous ces motifs (sauf le dernier) ont été identifiés indépen-damment comme ayant une origine paléolithique par divers chercheurs utilisant différentes bases de données et méthodes d'analyse.

An American Wellspring: A Hypothesis in the Making
Related research Papers and Quotes
Human Evolution; Second world as First world
A Thanksgiving Celebration of the inevitable Meeting of Old World descendants  of New World Ancestors
An alternative Evolutionary Explanation and the Quotes to 'back it up'!

With the current surge of simulation studies in archaeology there is a growing concern for the lack of engagement and feedback between modellers and domain specialists. To facilitate this dialogue I present a compact guide to the simulation modelling process applied to a common research topic and the focus of this special issue of Human Biology—human dispersals. The process of developing a simulation is divided into nine steps grouped in three phases. The conceptual phase consists of identifying research questions (step 1) and finding the most suitable method (step 2), designing the general framework and the resolution of the simulation (step 3) and then by filling in that framework with the modelled entities and the rules of interactions (step 4). This is followed by the technical phase of coding and testing (step 5), parameterising the simulation (step 6) and running it (step 7). In the final phase the results of the simulation are analysed and re-contextualised (step 8) and the findings of the model are disseminated in publications and code repositories (step 9). Each step will be defined and characterised and then illustrated with examples of published human dispersals simulation studies. While not aiming to be a comprehensive textbook- style guide to simulation, this overview of the process of modelling human dispersals should arm any non-modeller with enough understanding to evaluate the quality, strengths and weaknesses of any particular archaeological simulation and provide a starting point for further exploration of this common scientific tool.

This study provides a detailed reconstruction of the paleoenvironmental conditions that prevailed during one of the periods of modern human migration out of Africa and their occupation of the Eastern Mediterranean-Levant during the Late Middle Paleolithic-Early Upper Paleolithic. Tracing the past vegetation and climate within the Eastern Mediterranean-Levant region is largely based on a southeastern Mediterranean marine pollen record covering the last 90 kyr (core MD-9509). The various palynomorphs were linked to distinct vegetation zones that were correlated to the two climate systems affecting the study area: the low-latitude monsoon system and the North Atlantic-Mediterranean climate system. The bioprovince palynological markers show that during the period between ~56 and 44 ka, which covers the early part of Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3), there was an increase in transportation of pollen from Nilotic origin and a rise in dinoflagellate cyst ratios. These changes coincided with maximum insolation values at 65 N, which led to an enhancement in Nile River discharge into the Eastern Medi-terranean following the intensification of the African monsoonal system. At the same time, the rise in Mediterranean arboreal pollen values (broadleaved, coniferous and deciduous temperate trees) is most likely driven by increased precipitation related to the intensification of the North Atlantic-Mediterranean climate system. The ~56e44 ka wet event coincides with Dansgaard-Oeschger interstadials 14 and 12 and with a warming phase in the Levant, as evidenced by the melting of permafrost along the higher elevations of Mount Hermon. We suggest that African modern humans were able to cross the harsher arid areas due to the intensification of the monsoonal system during the first part of MIS 3, and inhabit the Eastern Mediterranean-Levant region where climatic conditions were favorable (wetter and warmer), even in the currently semiarid/steppe regions.

The time of arrival of people in Australia is an unresolved question. It is relevant to debates about when modern humans first dispersed out of Africa and when their descendants incorporated genetic material from Neanderthals, Denisovans and possibly other hominins. Humans have also been implicated in the extinction of Australia's megafauna. Here we report the results of new excavations conducted at Madjedbebe, a rock shelter in northern Australia. Artefacts in primary depositional context are concentrated in three dense bands, with the stratigraphic integrity of the deposit demonstrated by artefact refits and by optical dating and other analyses of the sediments. Human occupation began around 65,000 years ago, with a distinctive stone tool assemblage including grindstones, ground ochres, reflective additives and groundedge axes. This evidence sets a new minimum age for human arrival in Australia, the dispersal of modern humans out of Africa, and their subsequent interactions with Neanderthals and Denisovans. 22. Clarkson, C. et al. The archaeology, chronology and stratigraphy of Madjedbebe (Malakunanja II): A site in northern Australia with early occupation.

New Guineans represent one of the oldest locally continuous populations outside Africa, harboring among the greatest
linguistic and genetic diversity on the planet. Archeological and genetic evidence suggest that their ancestors reached Sahul
(present day New Guinea and Australia) by at least 55,000 years ago (kya). However, little is known about this early
settlement phase or subsequent dispersal and population structuring over the subsequent period of time. Here we report 379
complete Papuan mitochondrial genomes from across Papua New Guinea, which allow us to reconstruct the phylogenetic
and phylogeographic history of northern Sahul. Our results support the arrival of two groups of settlers in Sahul within the
same broad time window (50–65 kya), each carrying a different set of maternal lineages and settling Northern and Southern
Sahul separately. Strong geographic structure in northern Sahul remains visible today, indicating limited dispersal over time
despite major climatic, cultural, and historical changes. However, following a period of isolation lasting nearly 20 ky after
initial settlement, environmental changes postdating the Last Glacial Maximum stimulated diversification of mtDNA
lineages and greater interactions within and beyond Northern Sahul, to Southern Sahul, Wallacea and beyond. Later, in the
Holocene, populations from New Guinea, in contrast to those of Australia, participated in early interactions with incoming
Asian populations from Island Southeast Asia and continuing into Oceania.

This chapter focuses on a region that encompasses the Gulf of Zula and Buri Peninsula along the Red Sea coast of Eritrea. Middle and Later Stone Age (LSA) sites uncovered from the area shed light on the exploitation of marine and coastal resources that sustained human populations during these periods. Two sites with Middle Stone Age (MSA) remains, namely Abdur - located on an elevated reef and dated to 125kya, and Asfet containing diagnostic stone artifacts that existed roughly 200 – 50kya demonstrate that the coast was visited, and may have served as stepping-stones of Ancient Modern humans during their spread from Africa into Asia, whether northward into the Levant or across the Red Sea into Arabia. In addition, three early to mid-Holocene (LSA) shell middens documented from the region reflect the exploitation of different coastal environments. Misse East and Gelalo Northwest were both dated to the eighth millennium BP. The presence of Atactodea striata (a bivalve that dwells in tidal flats near sandy beaches) and Terebralia palustris (a gastropod living in mangrove swamps) at the sites signifies that these molluskan organisms likely served as a supplementary food source. Gelalo Northwest also included a relatively large number of shell beads. Asfet Unit F, dated to the sixth millennium BP, was also dominated by Terebralia palustris. This coastal settlement is probably the result of adverse climatic conditions that prevailed in the hinterland during that period.

This paper focuses on the dispersals of Homo sapiens out-of-Africa and discusses the succession of 'Out-of-Africa' and 'Back-to-Africa' movements from a North African perspective, as a major corridor of dispersal. Specifically, the consequences of anatomically modern human (AMH) dispersals both from North Africa into Eurasia and from there back into North Africa are investigated, and the archaeological and genetic outcomes of such forward and back migrations subsequently considered. In order to achieve these aims, this paper focuses on the dispersals of early modern humans out of North Africa during the Upper Pleistocene, explores possible hypotheses of interbreeding between AMH and Neanderthals, and analyzes the Back-to-Africa movement which appears to have occurred during the final Pleistocene. The debate on the possibilities, timing, and location of interbreeding has recently emphasized the importance of the encounters and genetic admixture between African AMH and Neanderthals when they met as a result of dispersal out of North Africa. The genetic evidence has also suggested a Back to-Africa migration by some AMH who had interbred with Neanderthals outside of Africa before resettling in North Africa.