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The Origin of Us: Archaeological and fossil finds shed light on the emergence
and spread of modern humans

Article  in  Natural History · September 2018

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 The Origin of Us
Archaeological and fossil finds
shed light on the emergence and
spread of modern humans.
By Natalie O’Shea and Eric Delson
I
n 1868, the first well-preserved fossils of our own species,
Homo sapiens, were found in Les Eyzies, southwestern
France. At first they were termed “Cro-Magnon Man” and
thought to be a distinct variety or even species, but in fact
they were just early Europeans [see photograph above
right]. Dating from about 28,000 years ago, those fossils
are some 12,000 years younger than the oldest H. sapiens
fossils now known from western Europe. In the middle of
the twentieth century, researchers argued over whether
these modern humans had a long independent history in the
region or if they evolved from early representatives of Nean-
derthals, an archaic species that had been recognized since
1856. Either way, the focus remained on Europe as the sup-
posed birthplace of modern humans. Only in the late 1970s
did accurate dating of early H. sapiens indicate an origin in
Africa, followed by dispersal to Eurasia and beyond.
In the 1980s and 1990s, paleoanthropology became
dominated by a debate between two evolutionary models:
African replacement (or “Out of Africa”) and multiregion-
alism. The first suggested that our species originated in
Africa and then spread across the globe, replacing more
archaic Homo species with little to no interbreeding be-
tween moderns and archaics. On the other end of the
spectrum, the multiregionalists proposed that H. sapiens
evolved more or less independently in several regions of
the world from more archaic hominin ancestors (a hom-
inin is a member of the evolutionary lineage including
modern humans since our split from chimpanzees). This
model emphasized the importance of continuous genetic
and cultural exchange among populations around the
world since the initial dispersal of hominins out of Africa
nearly 2 million years ago.
As often happens in paleoanthropology, as more evi-
dence accrued it became clear that the story was more
complicated than either original model could support. A
range of more nuanced intermediate models that had pre-
viously been proposed became more tenable. Some aligned
with the African replacement hypothesis in emphasizing
the largely African nature of modern human origins (but,
for example, allowing significant hybridization with the
older regional forms). Others sustained the multiregional
focus, proposing a degree of interchange among popula-
19-22 NH OShea 918.indd 19
Chris Stringer/Natural History Museum London
tions but emphasizing adaptation by immigrants to re-
gional environments.
Beginning in 2010, geneticists have shown that out-
side Africa, all H. sapiens now alive derive 1 to 4 percent
of their genome from Neanderthals. This confirmed that
modern and archaic hominins did interbreed, which had
been a matter of debate. And a hominin species discovered
only recently, the Denisovans (Asian relatives of Nean-
derthals), apparently exchanged genetic information with
the ancestors of living Melanesian populations in the last
100,000 years.
As a consequence of these genetic insights, the focus of
research has shifted from determining whether modern hu-
mans evolved “from” regional archaic forms—or did not—to
the timing and mode of the emergence and dispersal of our
species and its interaction with other hominins. In this en-
deavor, the traditional search for and dating of fossils and
artifacts goes hand in hand with the latest in genetic analysis.
M
any paleoanthropologists long claimed that the
origin of our species could be traced back 200,000
years. That is the estimate of when an ancestral
version of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) existed,
back to which all living humans can trace their own vari-
ants of mtDNA. A component of human cells, mtDNA is
passed down through maternal lines and accumulates
variations at a fairly predictable rate, thus allowing scien-
tists to estimate when that ancestral version was present.
The ballpark figure of 200,000 years ago was seemingly
supported in the fossil record by the appearance of some
of the earliest anatomically modern humans between
195,000 and 160,000 years ago, at the Ethiopian sites of
Herto and Omo Kibish [see top left photograph on next
page]. However, the mtDNA estimate only gives us a mini-
mum time of divergence. Our species likely arose earlier
and possessed many mitochondrial lineages that simply
did not leave descendants. Therefore, the fossil evidence of
our species’ origin is likely to prove more conclusive.
As recently as the summer of 2017, research on both new
Above: A 28,000-year-old cranium discovered in southwestern France,
once thought to belong to a distinct human variety or species called Cro-
Magnon, is actually the same as that of a modern European.
September 2018 natural h istory 19
8/6/18 11:59 AM
 Chris Stringer/Natural History Museum London
Chris Stringer/Natural History Museum London

A partial fossil cranium, above left, from the Ethiopian site of Omo Kibish, dates from 195,000 years ago and is considered
one of the earliest specimens of Homo sapiens or a late member of a precursor variety. At right is a cranium from the site of
Eleru in West Africa that is only 10,000 years old, yet has a similar—long and low—archaic appearance.

and previously known fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco,
by Jean-Jacques Hublin of the Max Planck Institute for Evo-
lutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and colleagues, revealed
that they display a number of anatomically modern mor-
phological features [see photograph below]. These fossils
date from approximately 315,000 years ago, predating the
previously suggested “origin” of modern humans by more
than 100,000 years. Furthermore, recent discoveries from
the Olorgesailie Basin in southern Kenya have also reset
the beginnings of the Middle Stone Age, the archaeological
“industry” of tool types most closely associated with early
African H. sapiens. Credit for this
work goes to Alison S. Brooks of
George Washington University,
Richard Potts of the Smithsonian
National Museum of Natural His-
tory, both in Washington, D.C.,
and Alan L. Deino of the Berkeley
Geochronology Center in Califor-
nia, and their colleagues. The new
estimate, more than 300,000
traditional origins narrative, providing additional support
for placing certain controversial specimens within our spe-
cies, such as the 260,000-year-old Florisbad cranium from
South Africa [see top photograph on opposite page]. In
addition, the evidence that H. naledi fossils from South Af-
rica date from 335,000 to 236,000 years ago demonstrates
that a very primitive hominin survived in Africa around the
time of modern human origins. Adding to the complexity,
archaeological and fossil evidence from West Africa, for
instance from the 10,000-year-old site of Iwo Eleru, point
to the persistence in parts of Africa both of archaic tech-
nologies (Middle Stone Age tools,
which elsewhere disappeared
50,000 to 30,000 years ago) and
of anatomical features (such as
low foreheads and elongate brain-
cases reminiscent of those in fos-
sils more than 300,000 years old)
[see photograph above right].
While much work remains to bet-
ter understand population dy-
Chris Stringer/Natural History Museum London

years ago, is strikingly compara- namics within Africa during the

ble to that suggested by the Jebel last few hundred thousand years,
Irhoud fossils. exciting new finds and interpreta-
In combination with other new tions have clarified the movement
analyses, the revised date for of early modern humans out of
early modern human fossils and Africa.
artifacts highlights the “mosiac”

C
nature of our origin. That is, dif- urrent views of early H.
ferent parts of our anatomy and sapiens dispersal from Af-
our toolkits evolved at different rica can be divided into
rates, rather than appearing all at A Homo sapiens cranium from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, two broad categories: those
once as a complete package. dating from about 315,000 years ago, is the earliest known which propose a single successful
These findings have altered the fossil of our species. dispersal event and those which

20 natural history September 2018

19-22 NH OShea 918.indd 20 8/6/18 11:59 AM

 support multiple successful dispersals out of Africa. One
of the key points of contention among these models is the

Chester Tarka for “Ancestors”/courtesy Eric Delson and Nasionale Museum Bloemfontein
ancestry of certain hypothetical “relict” populations that
may retain shared ancestral traits from an early dispers-
ing population. These putative relict populations include
Australians, Melanesians, Papuans, Dravidian speakers of
South Asia, and the short-statured “Negrito” peoples of is-
land Southeast Asia.
The original multiple-dispersal model suggested that
there were two major waves of dispersal out of Africa, the
first leading to the establishment of these relict popula-
tions, and the second accounting for the ancestry of all
other living humans. While most single-dispersal models
do not support any special ancestry for hypothetical rel-
ict groups, some allow that these populations may have
diverged from other Eurasians not in Africa, but some-
where in southwest Asia, with populations ancestral to
Australo-Melanesians following a southern route along
the Indian Ocean rim.
The clearest evidence of an early-dispersing population
of early modern humans comes from Israel. Several rela-
tively intact specimens were recovered from the Skhu ˉl
The 260,000-year-old specimen from the site of Florisbad, South Africa,
and Qafzeh caves beginning in the early 1930s and later was thought to be too old, as well as too different, to be a modern hu-
found to date from between 120,000 and 90,000 years man cranium. With recognition that modern humans have been around at
ago [see photographs below]. Those specimens were least that long, its high forehead is getting some new respect.
long believed to be the oldest evidence of our species
outside the African continent. However, newly excavated were a part survived and contributed to the genetic ances-
material from the nearby Misliya Cave, reported by Is- try of any living humans.
rael Hershkovitz of Tel Aviv University in Israel and col- The same team discovered a 55,000-year-old partial
leagues, dates from around 180,000 years ago, pushing skull from Manot Cave, Israel, that shows a resemblance
back the first H. sapiens occupation of the region by more to some of the earliest European populations, but not to
than 50,000 years. While paleoanthropologists agree the earlier fossils from Israel at Skhu ˉ l and Qafzeh. That
that these specimens can be attributed to our species, it suggests that the earlier population may have gone extinct,
has been unclear whether the populations of which they and the region was later recolonized. Meanwhile, the re-
cent discovery of a finger
bone and stone artifacts
from the site of Al Wusta,
Chester Tarka for “Ancestors”/courtesy Eric Delson and Harvard

Saudi Arabia, dating from

85,000 years ago, pres-
ents a new piece of the
puzzle. It could support
Chris Stringer/Natural History Museum London

either continuous occupa-

tion of southwest Asia or
potentially another, sepa-
rate, early dispersal event.

E
vidence of early
modern human oc-
Peabody Museum

cupation of regions
beyond western Asia
is somewhat sparser. Re-
-- left, and Qafzeh, right, date from between 120,000 and 90,000 years ago.
Crania from the Israeli sites of Skhul,
cently described modern
Discovered in the 1930s, until recently they were thought to be, with their small faces and rounded braincases, the human teeth from Fuyan
earliest evidence of Homo sapiens outside the African continent. Cave (Daoxian county)

September 2018 natural h istory 21

19-22 NH OShea 918.indd 21 8/6/18 11:59 AM

 in southern China are dated between
120,000 and 80,000 years old, based
on the associated geological deposits.
But some of the teeth have cavities, a
feature that is notably rare in the fossil
record prior to the development of ag-
riculture, leading to concern that these

S. Black/Adapted from H. Reyes-Centeno, “Out of Africa and into Asia,”

teeth may have in fact originated from
more recent deposits than the ones in
which they were found. Another early
candidate is a partial skeleton from
Liujiang, also in southern China. It has
been variously dated to be between

Quaternary International, January 2016

140,000 and 40,000 years old, but its
exact geological origin is unclear and
it appears quite modern, suggesting a
younger age.
The next oldest modern human re-
mains are documented at Lida Ajer,
Sumatra, and date from 70,000 years
ago. And there are artifacts and other
archaeological evidence from the site
of Madjedbebe that humans had ar- Modern humans likely dispersed from Africa by following a northern route (red), a southern
route (blue), or some combination of the two. According to one model, an earlier dispersal
rived in Australia not long after, by
took the southern route, and some so-called relict populations now living along that route may
65,000 years ago. That, incidently, still bear genetic traces of that history. But such traces have been genetically confirmed only in
sets a minimum age for the dispersal Australia and Melanesia (blue dots).
of modern humans out of Africa: there
is no fossil evidence that any other hominin ever reached the existence of larger social networks in modern humans
Australia, and so only modern humans could have manu- compared with Neanderthals, and high levels of morpho-
factured the artifacts that were found. On the other hand, logical variability in the earliest modern humans suggests
the archaic H. floresiensis (the “Hobbits”) inhabited near- that this complex population structure may have been
by Flores Island, Indonesia, between 100,000 and 50,000 present at the origin of our species.
years ago. They remain a puzzle, as certain details of their Upcoming technological advances can be expected to
anatomy connect them to much older hominins. yield new strategies. One of these is paleoproteomics (the
In light of these recent discoveries there is growing agree- study of ancient proteins, which survive much longer than
ment that there were earlier dispersals of modern humans DNA), which will allow investigators to determine the
out of Africa, but it remains unclear whether these popu- species identity of even the smallest bone fragment. Com-
lations made any significant genetic contribution to living bined with a wealth of new fossil discoveries, such tools
people. Combined genetic and morphological research on set the stage for what may be the most exciting time yet in
living humans (including several “relict” populations) sup- modern human origins research.
ports the view that Australo-Melanesian peoples retain the
genetic signal of an early-dispersing population, but that Natalie O’Shea is a PhD candidate in anthropology at
the genomes and morphology of other groups have been the Graduate Center of the City University of New York
“swamped” by later dispersals. Geneticists have yet to re- (CUNY). Her dissertation research seeks to model early
solve this issue. One recent study concluded that 2 percent modern human demography and biogeography in Africa
by exploring past population dynamics in savanna-dwell-
of the Papuan ­genome was derived from an early-dispersing ing monkeys. Eric Delson is a professor of anthropology at
population, while another found no evidence for special an- the Graduate Center and at CUNY’s Lehman College. He
cestry of Australians, Papuans, and Andamanese. is also a research associate in the Division of Paleontology
But none of these details answers the big question: why at the American Museum of Natural History. Delson ed-
were modern humans so successful? Many paleoanthro- its the Springer book series Vertebrate Paleobiology and
Paleoanthropology, for which he is currently co-editing a
pologists believe our propensity for symbolic culture may volume about field research at the 2-million-year-old fossil
have been the key development that allowed us to out- mammal site of Senèze, central France. His research has
compete other hominins by enabling us to maintain larger focused on fossil monkeys of Africa and Eurasia, as well as
social networks. Genetic evidence does indeed support hominin and ape evolution.

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