Where was the Out of Africa corridor? (post 1)

The African origin of modern humans, and all hominins (including Homo erectus and other Eurasian hominins) implies that they originated there, descending from the great apes of that continent (i.e. Chimpanzees) and later migrated out of Africa into the Old World, and much more recently, via Berigia, into the Americas.

But, which was the course the ancient hominins that led to erectus, the later ones leading to Neanderthals and Denisovans, and finally those leading to us, took to move out of Africa? Which was the route?

In fact there is no certainty on this matter, and more than one route have been proposed for the Out Of Africa migration. These routes are shown below, in a map of Africa and the closest points that separate it from Eurasia. These are, from west to east, Gibraltar, the Strait of Sicily, Sinai, and Bab-el-Mandeb Strait.

The "out of" and "into" Africa routes for hominin migration. Copyright © 2026 by Austin Whittall

These routes were proposed by anthropologists because they are feasible. It is easier to cross 10 km of water via Gibraltar, where you can see the European coast from Morocco in North Africa than setting sail from Egypt northwards into an open sea without knowing what lies ahead. This can be said about the other two crossings (Straits of Sicily and Bab-el-Mandeb), where the stepping stones across the Red Sea and the Mediterranean are visible from the coast of Africa.

Feasibility also implies that the water can be navigated. In fact, Homo erectus crossed open stretches of sea 800,000 years ago in Indonesia, and also to reach Crete. This suggests that they had seafaring abilities.

Another factor is that animals seem to have been able to negotiate with these sea crossings, so one would expect humans could do the same.

The final argument is the similarity, or continuity of certain stone knapping technologies on both sides of the gap, suggesting a population bridging the gap during a migration. This is something seen in the Levant, where archaics and even modern humans are found in Israel (Levant).

Two way routes

The fact that they were used to exit Africa (the articles I cite are all formal ones, and they uphold the African origin of hominins and modern humans) does not mean they were used in the opposite direction, for "Into Africa" migrations.

Neanderthal alleles have been found in Africa, sourced from Eurasia; and it is possible that Homo erectus originated in Eurasia and migrated into Africa, or that modern humans did the same, peopling Africa. It is possible that the common ancestor of chimpanzees, gorillas, and all homo species originated in Eurasia.

Over the next posts, I will describe each of these corridors, Gibraltar, Strait of Sicily, Sinai, and Bab-el-Mandeb.

This Series of Posts comprises the following posts

Post 1: Where was the Out of Africa Corridor?
Post 2: OOA Routes: Gibraltar
Post 3: OOA Routes: Strait of Sicily
Post 4: OOA Routes: Sinai
Post 5: OOA Routes: Bab-el-Mandeb

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall © 

On archaic introgressions — John Hawks and the 80:20 theory

There is a gradual shift among mainstream scientists who are now accepting that modern humans are the result of different contributions from ancestral populations that took place within Africa (or possibly in the Levant), archaic people different from both Neanderthals and Denisovans.

An example of the above can be found in a recent article posted two days ago by renown anthropologist and professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, John Hawks, titled Modern humans evolved from an 80-20 mixture of two deep streams — Genome models are converging on a scenario in which two stem lineages separated 1.5 million years ago, and merged together 300,000 years ago.

In his post, Hawks looks into the different papers published over the past few years, that suggest ancient hominins admixed and the outcome was the human lineage. It is nicely written and mentions some of the research articles that I have mentioned in previous posts (like Padilla Iglesias, 2025, Mallick, 2016, Ragsdale, 2023, Rogers, 2026).

Hawks explores the suggestion that we evolved from the admixture of two archaic lineages, an event that took place 300,000 years ago. One of these groups provided 80% of our genes and the other one, 20%. He also suggests that the Homo naledi (Hawks played an important role in the discovery and analysis of this hominin) could be a possible ancestor of the older archaics because it split from our lineage around 1.5 million years ago (Mya). Other options are the Bodo and Kabwe hominins, but he points out that there is a gap in the fossils corresponding to the period spanning 1 to 1.5 Mya the date the two groups or "stems" split apart. Did they evolve "... from earlier, H. erectus-like ancestors"? or, as he suggests, (and this is very interesting) the basal ancestors were not living in Africa!

An Eurasian Origin

I will quote Hawks directly (highlighting is mine):

"A third scenario places the stem populations on different continents. Suppose that one of the stems, which gave rise to Neanderthals and Denisovans as well as the majority of the modern human gene pool, inhabited southwest Asia. The minority stem might then have inhabited part of East Africa or southern Africa. Putting the stem populations on different continents separated by the Sahara Desert would provide a biogeographic reason for the million-year separation of the stem populations. With low levels of gene flow like the Ragsdale model, it would be a multicontinental multiregional evolution scenario.
This scenario might fit the idea proposed by José Bermúdez de Castro and María Martinón-Torres in a 2013 paper, which proposed two “hotspots” of evolution for Pleistocene Homo, one in Southwest Asia and the other in East Africa. In their concept, the Levantine Corridor was an area with near-continuous habitation that gave rise to successive range expansions into Europe and other parts of Eurasia. Homo antecessor as represented in Spain was an early dispersal, possibly the first, and Neanderthals and Denisovans were later dispersals. The Levantine Corridor could well be the home of a Cousins-like Population A."

The suggestion of a population in the Middle East, spanning modern Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordania and probably Irak, and Saudi Arabia, is the origin of modern humans is very reasonable. That area was probably a vast refugium (or multiple refugia) safe from the rigors of harsh ice ages in northern Europe, and the desertification (for a recent paper on the climate in Eurasia see Zan, 2024) and arid conditions that prevailed for most of the Pleistocene. From there, pulses of hominins moved out, fanning into Eurasia (H. erectus, Dmanisi, the Flores Island hobbits, Homo antecessor, Neanderthals and Denisovans).

In the meantime, primitive archaics populated Africa south of the Sahara (H. naledi and H. rhodesiensis) which later admixed with modern humans, providing diversity to the African genome. Below is a map depicting this scenario.

The origin of humans in the Levant . A. Whittall © 20206>

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall © 

Misterious Middle Eastern (non-African) homo, not Neanderthals or modern humans (Denisovans?)

Two 2021 papers published in Science, one by Israel Hershkovitz et al. (A Middle Pleistocene Homo from Nesher Ramla, Israel, Science 372, 1424-1428. DOI:10.1126/science.abh3169 🔒), the other by Yossi Zaidner et al. (Middle Pleistocene Homo behavior and culture at 140,000 to 120,000 years ago and interactions with Homo sapiens.Science 372, 1429-1433. DOI:10.1126/science.abh3020 🔒) describe hominins living in what is now Israel using stone tool technologies associated to both modern humans and Neanderthals yet different two both of those lineages. These fossils have been dated to around 120,000 ti 140,000 years ago (120 - 140 kya), in the Middle Pleistocene (or MP).

Not Modern Humans or Neanderthals

The second paper states that "The evidence from Nesher Ramla demonstrates that late MP Homo fully mastered advanced Levallois technology that until only recently was linked to either H. sapiens or Neanderthals." It also mentions that this stone knapping technology was due to contact between different human groups ("cultural diffusion"), and this implies that they admixed: "These results are consistent with a growing body of genetic studies suggesting that a gene flow existed between divergent archaic Homo populations and H. sapiens during the late Middle and early Late Pleistocene. Our findings provide archaeological support for close cultural interactions between different human lineages during the Middle Paleolithic period and suggest that contacts between MP Homo and H. sapiens had already occurred prior to 120 ka."

The first paper proposes that these Middle Pleistocene hominins, which they call NR, after Nesher Ramla, the site in Israe where they were found, are distinct from both modern humans and Neanderthals. They present the following unrooted phylogenetic tree (Fig 2b) which they describe as having "NR-1 close to the origin of the branch leading to African MP Homo, close to the split from the H. erectus branch and to European MP Homo and Neanderthals (including Atapuerca SH), and far from early and recent H. sapiens".

Phylogenetic tree for the Nesher Ramla homo. Fig 2b in Hershkovitz et al., 2021

Notice how it is midway between the Eurasian Homo erectus, and the African MP hominins (like the ergaster, and H. rhodesiensis).

The authors point out that their analysis of the fossils show that they are a mossaic, with "a unique combination of archaic and Neanderthal features, supporting the existence of a local, Levantine population at the final MP... showing that an affiliation of the NR fossils with early and recent H. sapiens is highly unlikely, but that it is impossible to establish whether NR fossils are more likely to be classified as MP Homo, Neanderthal, or H. erectus (the latter for the parietal only)" So, it is different from the Homo sapiens lineage yet similar to erectus, Neanderthals or MP homo. They probabilities assigned by the study are: 41% Homo erectus, 34% MP Homo, and 25% Neanderthal.

Due to their recent age of 120 to 140 ky, the researchers suggest that they are the last survivors of an ancient Southwestern Asian homo group that could include other specimens found in the Middle East, like the Quesem and Zuttiyeh Caves individuals, and also Tabun Cavre. If this is the case they lived here between 420 and 120 ky ago. They could have admixed with the Homo sapiens of Misliya Cave, and also the Neanderthals of Skhul and Qafzeh.

They propose that the Nesher Ramla Homo is the source of the populations found in Western Europe such as the Arago and Atapuerca Sima de los Huesos (SH) specimens: "... contribution of Levantine Homo groups carrying Neanderthal-like traits to European Homo lineages. The NR Homo, carrying Neanderthal-like traits, could thus represent the “source” population... according to which Western Europe was repopulated through a series of successive migrations." The paper's bibliography cites de Castro et al., 2019, who proposed an explanation for the differences between them: "...Whereas the SH teeth present an almost morphological identity with European Neanderthals, the Arago teeth exhibit a combination of plesiomorphic as well as some Neanderthal-derived features. In addition, the Arago crown dimensions are remarkably larger than those from SH, the differences being statistically significant for most variables. We hypothesize that during the Middle Pleistocene the European continent was settled at different points in time by hominin groups coming from Southwest Asia, probably from a common mother population evolving in this latter region."

What I find interesting, is that these are Eurasian hominins, all of them, none are African. It somehow hints at a Middle Eastern origin of the population that led to Neanderthals, with a link to Homo erectus, and which is also associated with Mid Pleistocene Western European hominins like the Atapuerca Homo antecessor. The MP African hominins are not even close to these Levantine people.

The paper does not state it, but it follows logically, that modern humans could have originated in this region too.

Denisovans?

A very smart suggestion posted by John Hawks is that these Nesher Ramla people were Denisovans!

Hawks wrote: "One possibility may fit well, and I've not seen anybody mention it. We already know that there was a third population out there: the Denisovans. The DNA data from central Asia show us that Neandertal and Denisovan populations were sometimes in contact with each other, across more than 100,000 years of time, and that they mixed where they met. We do not know what the geographic range of Denisovans may have been across the southern tier of Asia. Many researchers have emphasized the Denisovans as an “eastern” population, due to the high representation of Denisovan ancestry in island southeast Asia and Oceania. But we have very little fossil evidence about the ancient populations of India and Pakistan, and the known Neandertals from Teshik-Tash, Uzbekistan and Shanidar, Iraq, are more recent than 100,000 years. So why not Denisovans in the Levant before 120,000 years ago?"

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall © 

An early Out of Africa 2.48 Million years ago

We have posted on the hominin remains found at Dmanisi in Georgia, and evidence of hominin presence in China 2.1 Million yeras ago (Ma). A recent paper provides some more information on this very early migration of hominins out of Africa 2.48 Ma, long before the first Homo sapiens appeared.

A few months ago we mentioned a new paper reported in the media that pushes the Out of Africa migration by pre-sapiens hominins to 2.4 Ma. We have just found it published: it is the paper by Giancarlo Scardia, Fabio Parenti, Daniel P. Miggins, AxelG erdes, Astolfo G.M. Araujo and Walter A.Neves, (Chronologic constraints on hominin dispersal outside Africa since 2.48?Ma from the Zarqa Valley, Jordan, Quaternary Science Reviews, Vol 219, 1 September 2019, pp 1-19, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.06.007). It tells us that they found evidence of hominin presence in an area that those who would later reach Dmanisi and China had to cross on their trek out of Africa: The Middle East.

They mention the presence of hominins in China some 2.1 Ma, and in North Africa (2.4 Ma), - and we add the Homo georgicus found in Georgia (1.75 Ma) to their list.

They also report that even though the Levant does not have any sites as old as those mentioned above, they found stone tools in the Dawqara Formation sediments in Zarqa Valley, in Jordan that were buried some 300,000 years earlier thant the Chinese tools.

As Jordan lies in the corridor that any out-of-Africa Homo habilis would use to exit Africa, they conclude that these artifacts were made by these hominins.

They found Oldowan tools together with fossils of mammals in the Dawqara Formation. They were not found in a site (a camp site for instance), the tools were transported to where they were found by water and buried by riverine sediments. They dated these sediments to 2.48 Ma.

These Oldowan tools are primitive and predate the later Acheulean tools developed by Homo erectus. So clearly these hominins were Homo habilis.

This puts an early date for the first hominin migration out of Africa and into Eurasia.

The Abstract is the following:

" Recent discoveries constrain the presence of hominins in North Africa since ca. 2.4?Ma and in China since ca. 2.1?Ma, providing a new temporal framework for the earliest migration out of Africa. No Paleolithic sites of such age exist in the Levant, the natural corridor between Africa and Asia. The Dawqara Formation in the Zarqa Valley, Jordan, has been known since the early 1980s because of the presence of artifacts at different stratigraphic levels within its fluvial sediments, consisting of choppers, cores, and flakes.
Although most of the artifacts display signs of transport, they bear unambiguous evidence of manufacture, and document hominin presence in the Zarqa Valley during the deposition of Dawqara Formation. Based on integrated chronology provided by paleomagnetic, 40Ar⁄39Ar, and U-Pb dating methods, our study shows that the Dawqara Formation was deposited between 2.52+⁄-?0.01?Ma and the Matuyama–Olduvai geomagnetic reversal (1.95?Ma). By linear interpolation, the artifact-bearing stratigraphic levels within the Dawqara Formation have ages of ca. 2.48?Ma, 2.24?Ma, 2.16?Ma, 2.06?Ma, and 1.95?Ma, respectively, possibly documenting continuous hominin presence in the Zarqa Valley.
These new ages for the Dawqara assemblage constrain the earliest hominin dispersal out of Africa to the beginning of the Pleistocene, and pre-date by ca. 300 kyr the hominin occupation of Chinese Loess Plateau."

The North African tools are the 1.9-million- and 2.4-million-year-old artifacts and stone tool-cutmarked bones from Ain Boucherit, Algeria., Sahnouni M, et al., Science. 2018 Dec 14;362(6420):1297-1301. doi: 10.1126/science.aau0008. Epub 2018 Nov 29.

Sahnouni suggests that these old Algerian tools (slightly younger thant the Oldowan tools from East Africa - 2.6 Ma) "shows that ancestral hominins inhabited the Mediterranean fringe in northern Africa much earlier than previously thought. The evidence strongly argues for early dispersal of stone tool manufacture and use from East Africa or a possible multiple-origin scenario of stone technology in both East and North Africa.".

However there are even older tools found in Asia, in India to be more specific, that are 2.6 Ma. Were these the first hominins to leave Africa?

Last but not least, these Zarqa Valley "artifacts" have been dug up in a fluvial environment not unlike the setting where the Calico California stone tools were found, yet these American artifacts have been disregarded by orthodox science and labeled as geofacts (not man made, but shaped by natural forces).

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2019 by Austin Whittall ©