In the complex story of human migration out of Africa, Homo sapiens are believed to have travelled steadily eastwards to Asia – eventually reaching Australia by around 50,000 years ago – but seem not to have moved into Europe for a period of 20,000 years. A new study published in Nature Communications (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-46161-7) addresses this crucial period between approximately 70,000 and 45,000 years ago, and reaches the conclusion that early migrants simply stayed put once they found an ideal environment, with no need to keep moving westwards.
A team of geneticists, environmental scientists, and archaeologists reached this conclusion first by using climate and palaeoecological data to look for a region capable of sustaining a large hunter-gatherer population. They decided that the Persian Plateau – an area surrounding modern-day Iran, including parts of Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait – would be the best candidate for this land of plenty.
They then analysed ancient genomes from the region and concluded that present-day Eurasians were largely descended from the people of the Plateau. Lead author Leonardo Vallini, of the University of Padova, Italy, describes the Plateau as the hub from which future populations moved on to settle all of Eurasia.
