The remains of a boy aged 9-12 recently unearthed in the Jordan Valley (Israel) may require us to rewrite the long-standing Out of Africa theory.
According to Ancient Origins, new research based on these remains explains why evidence regarding the timing of human migration out of Africa often does not align: it appears our ancestors left the cradle of humanity multiple times, with the two earliest waves occurring hundreds of thousands of years apart.
The remains of the boy were excavated at the ‘Ubeidiya site in the Jordan Valley. They consist of a single vertebra that is 1.5 million years old, but it is significant enough to rewrite part of ancient history.
Excavated vertebra from different angles – (Photo: Dr. Alon Barash/ Bar-Ilan University)
By comparing it to 1.8 million-year-old remains discovered in Georgia earlier, the research team from Bar-Ilan University, Ono Academic College, the University of Tulsa, and the Israel Antiquities Authority concluded that two waves of early humans left Africa between 1.8 and 1.5 million years ago.
Among them, the remains of the recently discovered boy, coded as UB 10749, represent the second wave, which is particularly noteworthy.
Modern techniques have helped reconstruct the physical characteristics of the boy, who died at the age of 9-12, as well as estimate how he would have looked as an adult.
The results indicate that when fully grown, he would have stood at 1.98 meters tall. This figure is quite surprising, as most known ancient human species were shorter than us. Thus, this boy stands out as a remarkable giant among extinct human species, and scientists are still unable to determine which species of the genus Homo he belonged to, which was once highly diverse.
Ubeidiya site – (Photo: Dr. Omry Barzilai/ Israel Antiquities Authority).
Similar to the wave that occurred 1.8 million years ago, this boy was migrating alongside his kind from Africa to Europe and Asia.
According to Daily Mail, in the area where these mysterious remains were found, from 1960 to 1999, scientists discovered numerous stone tools, hand axes, and many bones from extinct “beasts” such as saber-toothed tigers, mammoths, and giant buffaloes.
It seems that these ancient warriors lived alongside and perished with these bizarre beasts throughout their historic migration.
