190 Masayuki Ike-uchi
Now the following question is considered: when did Merge/UG emerge in
the history of human evolution?^1 I approach this question in this way. First,
based on the Merge-only hypothesis, we assume that all currently existing human
languages have one common property: that is, all of them have recursive Merge
as the structure-building operation.^2 Then the simplest (almost null, I suspect)
hypothesis is that genetically endowed Merge/UG fi rst emerged and existed in
the language of Homo sapiens in East Africa at the origin of human language.
Hence, Merge/UG certainly already existed (at the latest) prior to the Out-of-
Africa dispersal of Homo sapiens (R enfrew 2007: 78).^3 Consequently, determining
when this move occurred can assist us in discovering when Merge/UG emerged,
at least as a fi rst approximation.
Suppose that human language did not emerge in this way. That is, suppose that
every current human language had individually emerged in each and every place
after modern humans migrated out of Africa and dispersed worldwide. Then, one
would need to explain why it was recursive Merge rather than, for example, a
non-structural linear concatenation operation that emerged in a language in every
place in the world. Thus, the burden of proof is on the proponents of the other
hypotheses, including those based on, for example, convergent evolution.^4
As noted, the question then concerns when the Out-of-Africa of Homo sapiens
occurred in human history. The claim that has been traditionally and widely
accepted is that Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa around 50–80 kya (at the
earliest 100 kya) (e.g., Kl ein 2009a, 20 09b, As h and Robinson 2010, Ch omsky
2013, Be rwick et al. 2013, Br ahic 2014).^5 However, recent archaeological/
paleoanthropological and genetic evidence reveals the possibility of a much earlier
Out-of-Africa movement – that their dispersal occurred around 130 kya. I will
present fi ve pieces of archaeological/paleoanthropological evidence in favor of
this claim and then present and discuss two pieces of genetic evidence that sup-
port it.
2 Archaeological/paleoanthropological evidence
The archaeological/paleoanthropological arguments introduced in this section
essentially take the pattern of either (i) or (ii). (i) Stonewares or tools excavated
in the stratum/place in question are quite similar to those produced by Homo
sapiens in (North) East Africa. Technically, one can speculate as to when those
layers and tools were formed and made. Thus it can be concluded that at the
time in question a group of Homo sapiens was already there. (ii) The hominin
fossils discovered in the layer formed some hundred thousand years ago are those
of Homo sapiens. Hence, it can be assumed that they were there at that time.
First, we go to Oman in the Arabian Peninsula (Ros e et al. 2011). The stone
tools found at the Nubian Complex in the Dhofar region of Oman are from 106
kya. These tools thus provide the archaeological evidence of the earlier existence
of a northeast African Middle Stone Age technocomplex in southern Arabia
(particularly, the use of the Levallois method). Hence, Homo sapiens was already
in the Arabian Peninsula around 106 kya and thus left East Africa through a
southern route much earlier than has been assumed thus far, as early as 110 kya.^6