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The ever-shifting date of the African exodus
A few months ago I read Michael Hart’s Understanding Human History (reviewed by me here), which said that a small group of modern humans—the ancestors of all non-African humanity—left Africa 60,000 years ago. While I had previously understood that the date of departure was considered by scientists to be 100,000 years ago, I internalized Hart’s new figure of 60,000 years ago and proceeded to use it in my own thoughts and discussions. Then I read Nicholas Wade’s Before the Dawn, which says that the proto group of modern humans left Africa 50,000 years ago. I was a little thrown that there would be such a variance on an event about which the evolutionists claim to be so certain, but I adjusted and began using that figure. Now Steve Sailer at Vdare quotes Henry Harpending to the effect that modern humans left Africa 40,000 years ago. Please guys, can’t you get together on this?
By the way, Wade says that modern Homo sapiens did not differentiate into distinct races until 12,000 years ago. This seemed like the most sensational and unlikely claim in his book, but I haven’t seen any discussion of it. Email entry |