Second, we turn to the United Arab Emerites. According to Arm itage et al.
(2011), assemblages (i.e., their Levallois assemblage C) from Jebel Faya, UAE,
have crucial affinities to those of the late Middle Stone Age in (North) East
Africa. Armitage and his colleagues determined that they were created approxi-
mately 125 kya. Hence, this evidence demonstrates the presence of Homo sapiens
in eastern Arabia by approximately 125 kya. In order for Homo sapiens to be in
eastern Arabia by 125 kya, they would have needed to leave Africa some time
earlier than 125 kya. That is, they migrated from East Africa into south Arabia
much earlier than is usually assumed, likely around 130 kya at the latest.
Third, turning to China, fragmentary human remains, two molars and an anterior
mandible, were discovered in 2007 at Zhirendong in South China. Their date was
confirmed by U-series on an overlying flowstone layer and an associated faunal
sample to be from the initial Late Pleistocene, i.e., approximately 100–113 kya.
These remains provide evidence of a modern human emergence in East Asia at least
100 kya (Liu et al. 2010b, Denn ell 2010). This finding in turn suggests that the
Out-of-Africa exodus occurred earlier than at least 100 kya. Homo sapiens reached
southern China by 100 kya and thus had to have left Africa much earlier.^7
Fourth, the Lunadong (LND) hominin fossil assemblage found at Luna Cave,
Guangxi, southern China, comprises one left upper second molar (M2) and one
right lower second molar (m2), both of which are permanent teeth. According
to Bae et al. (2014), at least M2 is clearly assigned to modern Homo sapiens,
while m2 is less clear, but is likely to be affiliated with modern Homo sapiens,
in terms of metric and geometric morphometric analysis. Notably, the teeth are
securely dated between 127 and 70 kya according to uranium-series dating of
associated flowstones. The same logic can apply to the former date.
Fifth, turning to central China, the seven hominin teeth discovered in Huan-
glong Cave in Hubei Province are assumed to be from modern Homo sapiens.
The U-series on thin flowstone formations dates them to 81–101 kya (Shen
et al. 2013).^8 Shen et al. (2013: 166) argue that this evidence “would... be
compatible with a scenario in which fully modern human morphology first evolved
in East Africa after 200 ka, and diffused to the rest of the world quickly there-
after, arriving in eastern Asia 100 ka ago (not 50 ka ago), or earlier.” The logic
is the same as in the above cases: to arrive in central China, eastern Asia, as early
as 100 kya, modern Homo sapiens would have left Africa earlier than 100 kya.^9
Taken together, these pieces of recent archaeological/paleoanthropological
evidence lead us to conclude that anatomically modern Homo sapiens left Africa
through the southern route, not as recently as 50–80 kya but at the latest
around 130 kya.10,11
3 Genetic evidence
We now consider some recent genetic evidence.
The first piece of evidence is based on the idea of a “molecular clock.”^12
Mutations accumulate along time. Hence, roughly speaking, when we multiply
the number of genetic mutations in DNA sequences by the average human
mutation rate, we can reasonably determine, for instance, when the two hominins
The hypothesis of earlier emergence 191