Out of Africa

What is on the map

• 8 Africa
• 25 Into Eurasia
• 7 Sahul
• 9 The Americas
• 12 The Pacific

Chronology

1. 315,000 BCJebel Irhoud: the oldest Homo sapiens fossils knownfossil▸
2. 259,000 BCThe Florisbad skull, South Africafossil▸
3. 200,000 BCOmo Kibish, Ethiopia — long the oldest of our speciesfossil▸
4. 185,000 BCMisliya Cave: a jawbone on Mount Carmel, 185,000 years oldfossil▸
5. 164,000 BCPinnacle Point: shellfish, pigment and heat-treated stonesite▸
6. 160,000 BCHerto, Ethiopia: Homo sapiens idaltufossil▸
7. 125,000 BCKlasies River Caves, at the southern tip of the continentsite▸
8. 125,000 BCJebel Faya: African toolkits on the far side of Arabiasite▸
9. 120,000 BCSkhul and Qafzeh: an excursion that left no descendantsfossil▸
10. 100,000 BCBlombos Cave: cross-hatched ochre, the oldest known drawingart▸
11. 77,000 BCBorder Cave, and the oldest known digging sticksite▸
12. 75,000 BCJwalapuram, India: tools above and below the Toba ashsite▸
13. 74,000 BCToba erupts: the largest eruption in two million yearseruption▸
14. 70,000 BCThe dispersal that stuck: perhaps a thousand people crossed the straitdispersal▸
15. 65,000 BCMadjedbebe, Arnhem Land — contested, and possibly Australia’s oldestsite▸
16. 50,000 BCSahul reached across open sea — no land bridge ever joined itcrossing▸
17. 49,000 BCWarratyi: the arid interior, far from any coastsite▸
18. 48,000 BCFa Hien Cave, Sri Lanka: rainforest foragers and bone arrowheadssite▸
19. 48,000 BCDevil's Lair, at the south-western corner of the continentsite▸
20. 46,000 BCTam Pa Ling, Laos: modern humans deep in the mainlandfossil▸
21. 46,000 BCBacho Kiro, Bulgaria: the earliest modern humans in Europesite▸
22. 45,500 BCMaros-Pangkep, Sulawesi: a painted warty pig, the oldest figurative artart▸
23. 45,000 BCUst'-Ishim man: a whole genome from western Siberiafossil▸
24. 44,000 BCGrotta del Cavallo, in the heel of Italyfossil▸
25. 42,000 BCLake Mungo: cremation and ochre burial in the Australian interiorburial▸
26. 40,000 BCThe Deep Skull of Niah Cave, Borneofossil▸
27. 40,000 BCPeștera cu Oase: a man with a Neanderthal great-great-grandparentfossil▸
28. 40,000 BCDenisova Cave: a third human lineage, and its genes in Oceaniaadmixture▸
29. 40,000 BCNeanderthal ancestry: 1–2% in everyone outside Africaadmixture▸
30. 40,000 BCTianyuan man, near Beijingfossil▸
31. 39,000 BCThe Neanderthals disappearextinction▸
32. 38,000 BCKostenki, on the Don: mammoth-bone dwellingssite▸
33. 36,000 BCChauvet: lions, rhinos and horses drawn by torchlightart▸
34. 35,000 BCThe Japanese archipelago is settledsite▸
35. 34,000 BCSungir: two children buried with ten thousand ivory beadsburial▸
36. 32,000 BCYana Rhinoceros Horn Site: humans inside the Arctic Circlesite▸
37. 26,000 BCThe Last Glacial Maximum: sea level 120 m lower, ice to the Thamesclimate▸
38. 25,000 BCThe Beringian standstill: a population isolated for millenniastandstill▸
39. 24,000 BCMal'ta-Buret', by Lake Baikal: the Ancient North Eurasianssite▸
40. 23,000 BCWhite Sands: footprints that predate the ice-free corridorfootprints▸
41. 16,000 BCCooper's Ferry, Idaho, on the Salmon Riversite▸
42. 15,500 BCButtermilk Creek, Texas: tools older than Clovissite▸
43. 14,800 BCMonte Verde, Chile — the far end of two continentssite▸
44. 14,500 BCPaisley Caves, Oregonsite▸
45. 14,000 BCJōmon pottery in Japan, among the oldest anywhereculture▸
46. 13,000 BCClovis points spread across North America in a few centuriesculture▸
47. 12,500 BCCueva Fell, Patagonia: the end of the roadsite▸
48. 3,000 BCThe Austronesian expansion sets out from Taiwandispersal▸
49. 2,200 BCThe Batanes, the first islands south of Taiwanlandfall▸
50. 1,600 BCLapita pottery appears in the Bismarck Archipelagoculture▸
51. 1,500 BCThe Marianas: the longest open-sea crossing anyone had yet madelandfall▸
52. 1,200 BCVanuatu, New Caledonia and Fiji within a few generationslandfall▸
53. 900 BCSamoa and Tonga: the eastern edge, and then a long pauselandfall▸
54. 500Madagascar is settled from Borneo, 7,000 km awaylandfall▸
55. 874Iceland: the Norse settlement beginslandfall▸
56. 950The Marquesas, the launching point for the last voyageslandfall▸
57. 1000The Society Islands: Tahiti and its navigatorslandfall▸
58. 1000The Thule reach Greenland, the last stretch of the Arcticlandfall▸
59. 1000Hawaii, at the northern point of the Polynesian trianglelandfall▸
60. 1200Rapa Nui, the loneliest inhabited island on Earthlandfall▸
61. 1250Aotearoa: the last large landmass on Earth to be settledlandfall▸

Routes and campaigns

• 190,000 BCUp the Nile and across Sinai
• 125,000 BCInto an Arabia that was briefly green
• 70,000 BCAcross the Bab-el-Mandeb — the crossing that stuck
• 66,000 BCAlong the shore of the Indian Ocean
• 63,000 BCRound the Bay of Bengal
• 60,000 BCDown the Sunda shelf, dry land in that sea level
• 55,000 BCIsland-hopping across Wallacea
• 52,000 BCInto Sahul: New Guinea and Australia are one continent
• 50,000 BCNorth-west by the Danube into Europe
• 50,000 BCNorth-east across the steppe
• 45,000 BCEast to the Pacific coast of Asia
• 38,000 BCOver the land bridge to the islands of Japan
• 34,000 BCNorth into the Arctic, in the teeth of the ice
• 26,000 BCAcross the Bering land bridge, and a long wait
• 16,000 BCDown the Pacific coast, by boat and by beach
• 16,000 BCInland, once the ice-free corridor opened
• 14,500 BCThe whole length of South America
• 3,000 BCOut of Taiwan: the Austronesian expansion begins
• 2,200 BCDown the Philippines to Borneo and Sulawesi
• 1,800 BCWest through Java and Sumatra
• 1,600 BCLapita pottery reaches the Bismarcks
• 1,500 BCNorth-east to the Marianas, 2,000 km of open sea
• 1,200 BCInto Remote Oceania: Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji
• 900 BCSamoa and Tonga, then two thousand years of pause
• 500West across the Indian Ocean to Madagascar
• 870Norse westing: Norway, Iceland, Greenland
• 950East at last: the Marquesas and the Society Islands
• 1000North to Hawaii, 4,000 km across the equator
• 1000East to Rapa Nui, against the trade winds
• 1000The Thule sweep across the Canadian Arctic
• 1250South-west to Aotearoa, into a colder sea

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