Dating Evidence Pushes Human Settlement Outside Africa Back to 1.9 Million Years Ago
A reassessment of dating evidence suggests that early humans were present in the Jordan Valley at least 1.9 million years ago. The finding places the archaeological site of Ubeidiya roughly 800,000 years earlier in the established chronology of human migration outside Africa.
Ubeidiya’s revised age is comparable to the Dmanisi site in Georgia, which is already among the oldest known locations associated with early human habitation outside the African continent. Researchers used advanced dating methods to reassess the site, indicating that the two locations may document human dispersal during a similar period.
The result changes the timeline for early human movement beyond Africa. Rather than appearing hundreds of thousands of years later, some of the earliest evidence now available for settlement outside the continent dates to around 1.9 million years ago.