Early Modern Humans (300,000 to 20,000 Years Ago) | Middle East And North Africa

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EARLY MODERN HUMANS (CRO-MAGNON MAN)

Cro-Magnon skull
Prehistoric modern humans — previously known as Cro-Magnon men and scientifically labeled anatomical modern human — were essentially modern Homo sapiens. They would be unrecognizable if you saw them on the street today if they wore the same clothes as everybody else. Ancient modern humans created paintings and sculptures, wore jewelry, made musical instruments and used dozens of different kinds of implements including tools to make tools. Cro-Magnon men were named after a French rock shelter where their fossils were first discovered in 1868. Homo sapien means "wise man." [Source: Rick Gore, National Geographic, September 1997; Rick Gore, National Geographic, July 2000, John Pfieffer, Smithsonian magazine, October 1986]

Geologic Age 300,000 to 10,000 years ago. 300,000-year-old fossils found in Morocco. A modern human skull, dated to 160,000 years ago, found in Ethiopia in 1997. Footprints made 117,000 year ago 60 miles north of Capetown, South Africa appear to have been made by modern humans. A 100,000-year-old skull specimen found in a cave in Qafzeh Israel was dated using thermolumiscene and ESR.

Size : males: 5 feet 9 inches, 143 pounds; females: 5 feet 3 inches, 119 pounds. Brain Size and Body Features: the same as people today; Skull Features: slightly bigger teeth and slightly thicker skulls than people today.

Websites and Resources on Hominins and Human Origins: Smithsonian Human Origins Program humanorigins.si.edu ; Institute of Human Origins iho.asu.edu ; Becoming Human University of Arizona site becominghuman.org ; Talk Origins Index talkorigins.org/origins ; Last updated 2006. Hall of Human Origins American Museum of Natural History amnh.org/exhibitions ; Wikipedia article on Human Evolution Wikipedia ; Evolution of Modern Humans anthro.palomar.edu ; Human Evolution Images evolution-textbook.org; Hominin Species talkorigins.org ; Paleoanthropology Links talkorigins.org ; Britannica Human Evolution britannica.com ; Human Evolution handprint.com ; National Geographic Map of Human Migrations genographic.nationalgeographic.com ; Humin Origins Washington State University wsu.edu/gened/learn-modules ; University of California Museum of Anthropology ucmp.berkeley.edu; BBC The evolution of man" bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life; "Bones, Stones and Genes: The Origin of Modern Humans" (Video lecture series). Howard Hughes Medical Institute.; Human Evolution Timeline ArchaeologyInfo.com ; Walking with Cavemen (BBC) bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life ; PBS Evolution: Humans pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/humans; PBS: Human Evolution Library www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library; Human Evolution: you try it, from PBS pbs.org/wgbh/aso/tryit/evolution; John Hawks' Anthropology Weblog johnhawks.net/ ; New Scientist: Human Evolution newscientist.com/article-topic/human-evolution;

Websites and Resources on Neanderthals: Wikipedia: Neanderthals Wikipedia ; Neanderthals Study Guide thoughtco.com ; Neandertals on Trial, from PBS pbs.org/wgbh/nova; The Neanderthal Museum neanderthal.de/en/ ; The Neanderthal Flute, by Bob Fink greenwych.ca. Websites and Resources on Prehistoric Art: Chauvet Cave Paintings archeologie.culture.fr/chauvet ; Cave of Lascaux archeologie.culture.fr/lascaux/en; Trust for African Rock Art (TARA) africanrockart.org; Bradshaw Foundation bradshawfoundation.com; Australian and Asian Palaeoanthropology, by Peter Brown peterbrown-palaeoanthropology.net. Fossil Sites and Organizations: The Paleoanthropology Society paleoanthro.org; Institute of Human Origins (Don Johanson's organization) iho.asu.edu/; The Leakey Foundation leakeyfoundation.org; The Stone Age Institute stoneageinstitute.org; The Bradshaw Foundation bradshawfoundation.com ; Turkana Basin Institute turkanabasin.org; Koobi Fora Research Project kfrp.com; Maropeng Cradle of Humankind, South Africa maropeng.co.za ; Blombus Cave Project web.archive.org/web; Journals: Journal of Human Evolution journals.elsevier.com/; American Journal of Physical Anthropology onlinelibrary.wiley.com; Evolutionary Anthropology onlinelibrary.wiley.com; Comptes Rendus Palevol journals.elsevier.com/ ; PaleoAnthropology paleoanthro.org.

Early Modern Human Milestones

20120205-Cro Magnon bone.jpg
Cro-Magnon bones
400,000 years ago: when modern human is believed to have developed.

300,000 years ago: earliest evidence of modern humans, in Jebel Irhoud, Morocco.

195,000 years ago: earliest evidence of modern humans in East Africa, from Omo Ethiopia. 160,000 years ago, oldest modern human skull, found in Herto Ethiopia in 1997.

100,000 years ago: migration out Africa.

100,000 years ago: earliest evidence of burials.

60,000 years ago: earliest firm evidence of humans in Australia.

40,000 years ago: earliest firm evidence of humans in Europe.

30,000 years ago: earliest known cave paintings.

20,000 years ago: furthest extent of last ice age caused colder climate and abandonment of many northern sites.

13,000 years ago: earliest firm evidence of humans in the Americas.

10,000 years ago: most recent ice age ends.

Earliest Evidence of Modern Humans (in Africa and the Middle East)

Country — Date — Place — Notes
Morocco — 300,000 years before present —Jebel Irhoud —Anatomically modern human remains of eight individuals dated 300,000 years old, making them the oldest remains ever found.
Ethiopia — 195,000 years before present — Omo Kibish Formation — The Omo remains found in 1967 near the Ethiopian Kibish Mountains, have been dated as ca. 195,000 years old.

Jebel Irhoud skull

Palestine/Israel — 180,000 years before present — Misliya Cave, Mount Carmel — Fossil maxilla is apparently older than remains found at Skhyul and Qafzeh.
Sudan — 140,000–160,000 years before present — Singa — Anatomically modern human discovered 1924 with rare temporal bone pathology [Source: Wikipedia +]

United Arab Emirates — 125,000 years before present — Jebel Faya — Stone tools made by anatomically modern humans
South Africa — 125,000 years before present — Klasies River Caves — Remains found in the Klasies River Caves in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa show signs of human hunting. There is some debate as to whether these remains represent anatomically modern humans.
Libya — 50,000–180,000 years before present — Haua Fteah — Fragments of 2 mandibles discovered in 1953 +

Oman — 75,000–125,000 years before present — Aybut — Tools found in the Dhofar Governorate correspond with African objects from the so-called 'Nubian Complex', dating from 75-125,000 years ago. According to archaeologist Jeffrey I. Rose, human settlements spread east from Africa across the Arabian Peninsula.
Democratic Republic of the Congo — 90,000 years before present — Katanda, Upper Semliki River — Semliki harpoon heads carved from bone.
Egypt — 50,000–80,000 years before present — Taramasa Hill — Skeleton of 8- to 10-year-old child discovered in 1994 +

Earliest Evidence of Modern Humans in Asia and Oceania

Country — Date — Place — Notes
China — 80,000–120,000 years before present — Fuyan Cave — Teeth were found under rock over which 80,000 years old stalagmites had grown.
India — 70,000 years before present — Jwalapuram, Andhra Pradesh — Recent finds of stone tools in Jwalapuram before and after the Toba supereruption, may have been made by modern humans, but this is disputed.
Indonesia —63,000-73,000 years before present — Lida Ajer cave — Teeth found in Sumatra in the 19th century
Philippines —67,000 years before present — Callao Cave — Archaeologists, Dr. Armand Mijares with Dr. Phil Piper found bones in a cave near Peñablanca, Cagayan in 2010 have been dated as ca. 67,000 years old. It's the earliest human fossil ever found in Asia-Pacific [Source: Wikipedia +]

Australia — 65,000 years before present — Madjedbebe — The oldest human skeletal remains are the 40,000-year-old Lake Mungo remains in New South Wales, but human ornaments discovered at Devil's Lair in Western Australia have been dated to 48,000 years before present and artifacts at Madjedbebe in Northern Territory are dated to ca. 65,000 Years before present.
Taiwan — 50,000 years before present — Chihshan Rock Site — Chipped stone tool similar to those of the Changpin culture on the east coast.
Japan — 47,000 years before present — Lake Nojiri — Genetic research indicates arrival of humans in Japan by 37,000 Years before present. Archeological remains at the Tategahana Paleolithic Site at Lake Nojiri have been dated as early as 47,000 Years before present. +

Laos — 46,000 years before present — Tam Pa Ling Cave — In 2009 an ancient skull was recovered from a cave in the Annamite Mountains in northern Laos which is at least 46,000 years old, making it the oldest modern human fossil found to date in Southeast Asia
Borneo — 46,000 years before present — (see Malaysia)
East Timor — 42,000 years before present — Jerimalai cave — Fish bones
Tasmania — 41,000 years before present — Jordan River Levee — Optically stimulated luminescence results from the site suggest a date ca. 41,000 Years before present. Rising sea level left Tasmania isolated after 8000 Years before present.
Hong Kong — 39,000 years before present — Wong Tei Tung — Optically stimulated luminescence results from the site suggest a date ca. 39,000 Years before present.
Malaysia — 34,000–46,000 years before present — Niah Cave — A human skull in Sarawak, Borneo (Archaeologists have claimed a much earlier date for stone tools found in the Mansuli valley, near Lahad Datu in Sabah, but precise dating analysis has not yet been published.) +

Fuyan Cave teeth

New Guinea — 40,000 years before present — Indonesian Side of New Guinea — Archaeological evidence shows that 40,000 years ago, some of the first farmers came to New Guinea from the South-East Asian Peninsula.
Sri Lanka — 34,000 years before present — Fa Hien Cave — The earliest remains of anatomically modern humans, based on radiocarbon dating of charcoal, have been found in the Fa Hien Cave in western Sri Lanka.
Okinawa — 32,000 years before present — Yamashita-cho cave, Naha city — Bone artifacts and an ash seam dated to 32,000±1000 Years before present.
Tibetan Plateau — 30,000 years before present
Buka Island, New Guinea — 28,000 years before present — Kilu Cave — Flaked stone, bone, and shell artifacts +

Earliest Evidence of Modern Humans in Europe

Greece — 45,000 years before present — Mount Parnassus — Geneticist Bryan Sykes identifies 'Ursula' as the first of The Seven Daughters of Eve, and the carrier of the mitochondrial haplogroup U. This hypothetical woman moved between the mountain caves and the coast of Greece, and based on genetic research represent the first human settlement of Europe.
Italy — 43,000–45,000 years before present — Grotta del Cavallo, Apulia — Two baby teeth discovered in Apulia in 1964 are the earliest modern human remains yet found in Europe.
United Kingdom — 41,500–44,200 years before present — Kents Cavern — Human jaw fragment found in Torquay, Devon in 1927 [Source: Wikipedia +]

Germany — 42,000–43,000 years before present — Geißenklösterle, Baden-Württemberg — Three Paleolithic flutes belonging to the early Aurignacian, which is associated with the assumed earliest presence of Homo sapiens in Europe (Cro-Magnon). It is the oldest example of prehistoric music.
Lithuania — 41,000–43,000 years before present — Šnaukštai (lt) near Gargždai — A hammer made from reindeer horn similar to those used by the Bromme culture was found in 2016. The discovery pushed back the earliest evidence of human presence in Lithuania by 30,000 years, i.e. to before the last glacial period.
Romania — 37,800–42,000 years before present —Pe tera cu Oase — Bones dated as 38–42,000 years old are among the oldest human remains found in Europe. +

France — 32,000 years before present — Chauvet Cave — The cave paintings in the Chauvet Cave in southern France have been called the earliest known cave art, though the dating is uncertain.
Czech Republic — 31,000 years before present — Mladeč caves — Oldest human bones that clearly represent a human settlement in Europe.
Poland — 30,000 years before present — Obłazowa Cave — A boomerang made from mammoth tusk
Russia — 28,000-30,000 years before present — Sungir — Burial site
Portugal — 24,500 years before present — Abrigo do Lagar Velho — Possible Neanderthal/Cro-Magnon hybrid, the Lapedo child
Sicily — 20,000 years before present — San Teodoro cave — Human cranium dated by gamma-ray spectrometry +

Pedra Furada, Brazil

Earliest Evidence of Modern Humans in America

Brazil — 41,000–56,000 years before present — Pedra Furada — Charcoal from the oldest layers yielded dates of 41,000-56,000 BP.

Canada — 25,000–40,000 years before present — Bluefish Caves — Human-worked mammoth bone flakes found at Bluefish Caves, Yukon, are much older than the stone tools and animal remains at Haida Gwaii in British Columbia (10-12,000 BP) and indicate the earliest known human settlement in North America.

United States — 16,000 years before present — Meadowcroft Rockshelter — Stone, bone, and wood artifacts and animal and plant remains found in Washington County, Pennsylvania. (Earlier claims have been made, but not corroborated, for sites such as Topper, South Carolina.)

Chile — 18,500-14,800 years before present — Monte Verde — Carbon dating of remains from this site represent the oldest known settlement in South America.

Paleolithic Period

Paleolithic Period (about 3 million years to 10,000 B.C.) — also spelled Palaeolithic Period and also called Old Stone Age — is a cultural stage of human development, characterized by the use of chipped stone tools. The Paleolithic Period is divided into three period: 1) Lower Paleolithic Period (2,580,000 to 200,000 years ago); 2) Middle Paleolithic Period (about 200,000 years ago to about 40,000 years ago); 3) Upper Paleolithic Period (beginning about 40,000 years ago). The three subdivisions are generally defined by the types of tools used — and their corresponding levels of sophistication — in each period. The period is studied through archaeology, the biological sciences, and even metaphysical studies including theology. Archaeology supplies sufficient information to provide some insight into the minds of Neanderthals and early Modern humans (i.e. Cro Magnon Man) who lived during this time.

Earliest modern humans in Africa

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica: “The onset of the Paleolithic Period has traditionally coincided with the first evidence of tool construction and use by Homo some 2.58 million years ago, near the beginning of the Pleistocene Epoch (2.58 million to 11,700 years ago). In 2015, however, researchers excavating a dry riverbed near Kenya’s Lake Turkana discovered primitive stone tools embedded in rocks dating to 3.3 million years ago—the middle of the Pliocene Epoch (some 5.3 million to 2.58 million years ago). Those tools predate the oldest confirmed specimens of Homo by almost 1 million years, which raises the possibility that toolmaking originated with Australopithecus or its contemporaries and that the timing of the onset of this cultural stage should be reevaluated. “Throughout the Paleolithic, humans were food gatherers, depending for their subsistence on hunting wild animals and birds, fishing, and collecting wild fruits, nuts, and berries. The artifactual record of this exceedingly long interval is very incomplete; it can be studied from such imperishable objects of now-extinct culture. [Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica ^]

“At sites dating from the Lower Paleolithic Period (2,580,000 to 200,000 years ago), simple pebble tools have been found in association with the remains of what may have been some of the earliest human ancestors. A somewhat more-sophisticated Lower Paleolithic tradition known as the Chopper chopping-tool industry is widely distributed in the Eastern Hemisphere and tradition is thought to have been the work of the hominin species named Homo erectus. It is believed that H. erectus probably made tools of wood and bone, although no such fossil tools have yet been found, as well as of stone.^

“About 700,000 years ago a new Lower Paleolithic tool, the hand ax, appeared. The earliest European hand axes are assigned to the Abbevillian industry, which developed in northern France in the valley of the Somme River; a later, more-refined hand-ax tradition is seen in the Acheulean industry, evidence of which has been found in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Some of the earliest known hand axes were found at Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania) in association with remains of H. erectus. Alongside the hand-ax tradition there developed a distinct and very different stone tool industry, based on flakes of stone: special tools were made from worked (carefully shaped) flakes of flint. In Europe the Clactonian industry is one example of a flake tradition. ^

“The early flake industries probably contributed to the development of the Middle Paleolithic flake tools of the Mousterian industry, which is associated with the remains of Neanderthals. Other items dating to the Middle Paleolithic are shell beads found in both North and South Africa. In Taforalt, Morocco, the beads were dated to approximately 82,000 years ago, and other, younger examples were encountered in Blombos Cave, Blombosfontein Nature Reserve, on the southern coast of South Africa. Experts determined that the patterns of wear seem to indicate that some of these shells were suspended, some were engraved, and examples from both sites were covered with red ochre. [Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica ^]

Spreading homo sapiens

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons except Earliest modern humans in Africa from Science magazine

Text Sources: National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Nature, Scientific American. Live Science, Discover magazine, Discovery News, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, The Guardian, Reuters, AP, AFP and various books and other publications.

Last updated March 2024