3885Accesses
125Citations
3 Altmetric
Abstract
Palaeoanthropologists and archaeologists have advanced a wide range of explanatory narratives for the various movements ofHomo erectus/Homo ergaster, and the first modernHomo sapiens, “Out of Africa”—or even back again. The application of Occam's razor—a parsimonious approach to causes—gives a more cautious approach. There is nothing in the available evidence that would require the ability for a human water crossing from Africa before the later Pleistocene, whether across the Strait of Gibraltar, the Sicilian Channel or the southern Red Sea (Bab el-Mandab). A parsimonious narrative is consistent with movements across the Sinai peninsula. The continuous arid zone from northern Africa to western Asia allowed both occupation and transit during wet phases of the Pleistocene; there is no requirement for a “sponge” model of absorption followed by expulsion of human groups. The Nile Valley as a possible transit route from East Africa has a geological chronology that could fit well much current evidence for the timing of human migration. The limited spatial and temporal opportunities for movements “Out of Africa,” or back again, also puts particular difficulties in the way of the gene flow required for the multiregional hypothesis of the development of modernHomo sapiens.
This is a preview of subscription content,log in via an institution to check access.
Access this article
Subscribe and save
- Starting from 10 chapters or articles per month
- Access and download chapters and articles from more than 300k books and 2,500 journals
- Cancel anytime
Buy Now
Price includes VAT (Japan)
Instant access to the full article PDF.


Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, books and news in related subjects, suggested using machine learning.References
Arribas, A., and Palmqvist, P. (1999). On ecological connection between sabre-tooths and hominids: Faunal dispersal events in the lower Pleistocene and a review of the evidence for the first human arrival in Europe.Journal of Archaeological Science26: 571–585.
Aumassip, G. (2004).Préhistoire du Sahara et de ses abords, Tome I,Au temps des chasseurs le paléolithique. Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose.
Bar-Yosef, O. (1995). The role of climate in the interpretation of human movements and cultural transformations. In E. S. Vrba, G. H. Denton, T. C. Partridge, and L. H. Bickele (Eds.),Paleoclimate and evolution, with emphasis on human origins (pp. 507–523). New Haven: Yale University Press.
Bar-Yosef, O., and Belfer-Cohen, A. (2001). From Africa to Eurasia—early dispersals.Quaternary International75, 19–28.
Bertoldi, R., Rio, D., and Thunell, R. (1989). Pliocene-Pleistocene vegetational and climatic evolution of the South–Central Mediterranean.Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology72: 263–275.
Brunet, M., Beauvilain, A., Coppens, Y., Heintz, E., Moutaye, A. H. E, and Pilbeam, D. (1995). The first australopithecine 2,500 kilometres west of the Rift Valley(Chad) .Nature378: 273–275
Cameron, D. W., and Groves, C. P. (2004).Bones, stone and molecules: “out of Africa” and human origins. Burlington: Elsevier.
Close, A. E. (In press). On the absence of a Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition in Mediterranean Northwest Africa. In M. Camps, and C. Szmidt (Eds.),The Mediterranean from 50,000 to 25,000 BP: Turning points and new directions. Oxford: Tempus Reparatum (BAR).
Dennell, R. (2003). Dispersal and colonisation, long and short chronologies: how continuous is the Early Pleistocene record for hominids outside East Africa.Journal of Human Evolution,45: 421–440.
Dennell, R., and Roebroeks, W. (2005). An Asian perspective on early human dispersal from Africa.Nature438: 1099–1104.
Erlandson, J. M. (2001). The archaeology of aquatic adaptations: Paradigms for a new millennium.Journal of Archaeological Research9: 287–350.
Flemming, N., Bailey, G., Courtillot, V., King, G., Lambeck, K., Ryerson, F., and Vita-Finzi, C. (2003). Coastal and marine palaeo-environments and human dispersal points across the Africa-Eurasia boundary. In C. A. Brebbia, and T. Gambin (Eds.),The maritime and underwater heritage (pp. 61–74). Southampton: Wessex Institute of Technology.
Forster, P. (2004). Ice Ages and the mitochondrial DNA chronology of human dispersals: A review.Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B359: 255–264.
Forster, P., and Matsumura, S. (2005). Did early humans go north or south?Science308: 965–6
Gamble, C. (1994).Timewalkers: The prehistory of global colonization. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Geraads, D., Raynal, J. P., and Eisenmann, V. (2002). The earliest human occupation of North Africa: A reply to Sahnouniet al.Journal of Human Evolution46: 751–761.
Hassan, F. A. (1997). Holocene palaeoclimates of Africa.African Archaeological Review14: 213–230.
Haynes, C. V., Maxwell, T. A., El Hawary, A., Nicoll, K. A., and Stokes, K. (1997). An Acheulian site near Bir Kiseiba in the Darb el Arba’in Desert, Egypt.Geoarchaeology12: 819–832.
Hill, C. L. (2001). Geologic contexts of the Acheulian (Middle Pleistocene) in the Eastern Sahara.Geoarchaeology16: 65–94.
Klein, R. G. (1995). Anatomy, behaviour, and modern human origins.Journal of World Prehistory,9: 167–198.
Klein, R. G. (1999).The human career: Human biological and human origins, (2nd ed.). Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Lahr, M. M., and Foley, R. A. (1998). Towards a theory of modern human origins: Geography demography and diversity in recent human evolution.American Journal of Physical Anthropology41: 137–176.
Lambeck, K., Esat, T. M., and Potter, E.–K. . (2002). Links between climate and sea levels for the past three million years.Nature419: 199–206.
Lourens, L. J., Antonarakou, A, Hilgen, F. J., Van Hoof, A. A. M., Vergnaud-Grazzini, C., and Zachariasse W. J. (1996). Evaluation of the Plio-Pleistocene astronomical timescale.Paleoceanography11: 391–414.
McDougall, I., Brown, F. H., and Fleagle, J. G. (2005). Stratigraphic placement and age of modern humans from Kibish, Ethiopia.Nature,433: 733–6
Mercier, N., Valladas, H., Froget, L., Joron, J.-L., Vermeersch, P. M., Van Peer, P., and Moeyersons, J. (1999). Thermoluminescence dating of a middle palaeolithic occupation at Sodmein Cave, Red Sea Mountains (Egypt).Journal of Archaeological Science26: 1323–1407.
Mitchell, P. M. (2004). Towards a comparative archaeology of Africa's islands.Journal of African Archaeology (Frankfurt)2: 229–250.
Moeyersons, J., Vermeersch, P. M., and van Peer, P. (2002). Dry cave deposits and their palaeoenvironmental significance during the last 115 kya, Sodmein Cave, Red Sea Mountains, Egypt.Quaternary Science Reviews1: 837–851.
Oren, E. D. (1973). The overland route between Egypt and Canaan in the Early Bronze Age (Preliminary Report).Israel Exploration Journal23: 198–213.
Petraglia, M. D. (2003). The lower paleolithic of the Arabian peninsula: Occupations, adaptations and dispersals.Journal of World Prehistory17: 141–179.
Roebroeks, W. (2001). Hominid behaviour and the earliest occupation of Europe: An exploration.Journal of Human Evolution41: 437–461.
Ronen, A. (1983). Late quaternary sea levels inferred from coastal stratigraphy and archaeology. In P. M. Masters, and N. C. Flemming (Eds.).Quaternary coastline and marine archaeology (pp. 121–134). London: Academic Press.
Sahnouni, M.,et al. (2002). Further research at the Oldowan site of Ain Hanech, North-eastern Algeria.Journal of Human Evolution43: 925–937.
Said, R. (1993).The River Nile; geology, hydrology and utilization, Oxford: Pergamon.
Smith, A. B. (1989). The near eastern connection: early to mid Holocene relations between North Africa and the Levant. In L. Krzyzaniak, and M. Kobusiewicz (Eds.),Late prehistory of the Nile Basin and the Sahara, (pp. 69–78). Poznana: Museum Archeologiczne w Poznanin.
Straus, L. G. (2001). Africa and Iberia in the Pleistocene.Quaternary International75: 91–102.
Stringer, C. (2000). Coasting out of Africa.Nature,405: 24–27
Turner, A. (1999). Assessing earliest human settlement from Eurasia: Late Pliocene dispersions from Africa.Antiquity73: 563–570.
van Peer, P. (1998). The Nile Corridor and the out-of-Africa model.Current Anthropology39 (Suppl.), S115–S140.
Vermeersch, P. M. (2001). ‘Out of Africa’ from an Egyptian point of view.Quaternary International75: 1030–112.
Villa, P. (2001). Early Italy and the colonization of Western Europe.Quaternary International75: 113–130.
Vrba, E. S. (1995). On the connections between paleoclimate and evolution. In E. S. Vrba, G. H. Denton, T. C. Partridge, and L. H. Bickele (Eds.),Paleoclimate and evolution, with emphasis on human origins (pp. 24–48). New Haven: Yale University Press.
Wendorf, F., and Schild, R. (1980).Prehistory of the Eastern Sahara. New York: Academic Press.
Wendorf, F., Schild, R., and Close, A. E. (1993).Egypt during the last interglacial. New York: Plenum.
Zhu, R. X., Potts, R., Xie, F., Hoffman, K. A., Deng, C. L., Shi, C. D., Pan, Y. X., Wang, H. Q., Shi, R. P., Wang, Y. C., Shi, G. H., and Wu, N. Q. (2004). New evidence on the earliest human presence at high northern latitudes in northeast Asia.Nature431: 559–562
Acknowledgements
Thanks for assistance or comments to colleagues including Geoff Bailey, Angela Close, Iain Davidson, Robin Dennell, Donald Denoon, Colin Groves, David Phillipson, and an anonymous reviewer, none of whom are implicated in my conclusions, errors or omissions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
School of History, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Robin Derricourt
- Robin Derricourt
Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar
Corresponding author
Correspondence toRobin Derricourt.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Derricourt, R. Getting “Out of Africa”: Sea Crossings, Land Crossings and Culture in the Hominin Migrations.J World Prehist19, 119–132 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-006-9002-z
Published:
Issue date:
Share this article
Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:
Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.
Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

