Middle Eastern Stone Age Tools Mark Earlier Date for Human Migration out of Africa

Direct human fossil evidence for such an early—and southeastward—migration is still lacking, however, the sand deposits around the stone tools suggest they have been buried 100,000 to 120,000 years. A middle Stone Age residence in this area would suggest that humans reached the Arabian Peninsula not from the more-northern Nile Valley 119,000 to 81,000 years ago or from the Mediterranean Sea's shores 65,000 to 40,000 years ago—as previous evidence has suggested—but rather directly from the Horn of Africa, and much earlier.