Fossilized remains from two Homo sapiens individuals found in Tam Pà Ling Cave have challenged the long-standing theory regarding the first wave of human migration out of Africa 50,000 to 60,000 years ago.
According to a publication in Nature Communications, scientists previously discovered human bones dating back 70,000 years in Tam Pà Ling Cave, also known as Monkey Cave, located at an elevation of 1,170 meters above sea level in northern Laos.
This unusual finding prompted them to dig deeper, as established theories supported by prior archaeological records indicated that modern humans, Homo sapiens, only migrated out of Africa around 50,000 to 60,000 years ago.
Researchers working at Tam Pà Ling Cave (Laos) – (Photo: Kira Westaway)
The new excavation yielded fragments of skulls and fossilized leg bones from two individuals, definitively identified as Homo sapiens and not any local species, as reported by CNN.
According to Live Science, radiocarbon dating on the sediments encasing these remains revealed a shocking result: the skull dates back 73,000 years, while the leg bones are dated to as much as 86,000 years!
It remains unclear how these ancient Homo sapiens were present in Laos before the major migration supported by archaeological evidence in Europe, Asia, and North Africa occurred tens of thousands of years later, but it is clear that historical records will need to be rewritten.
The lead author of the study, a paleontologist from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), stated that Tam Pà Ling is an ideal site to pose questions about migration because Southeast Asia is located at a “crossroads” between East Asia and the Southeast Asia-Australia islands.
This statement hints at a hypothesis that tens of thousands of years ago, there were “land bridges” connecting today’s separated continents, creating various migration routes that allowed Homo sapiens to traverse the globe along paths that have completely vanished in modern times.
Regardless of the circumstances, these fossils confirm that there were migrations prior to the major migration 50,000 to 60,000 years ago. Although these earlier migrations may have ended in dead ends, they represent the first Homo sapiens to leave their “homeland” in Africa.
There has been very little anthropological research in Laos until now, leading scientists to believe that many intriguing discoveries remain overlooked, which could help them piece together the fascinating history of Homo sapiens’ exploration of the world: leaving Africa, dispersing across other continents, competing or interbreeding with archaic human species, and becoming the last survivors.
