All articles tagged with #eurasia
Scientists have discovered the first ancient Yersinia pestis genome in a 4,000-year-old sheep from Russia, suggesting livestock played a role in spreading the Bronze Age plague across Eurasia, predating the flea-borne transmission seen in later outbreaks like the Black Death.
New computer simulations have mapped the likely migration routes of Neanderthals across Eurasia between 120,000 and 60,000 years ago, suggesting they used river valleys to traverse rugged terrain rapidly during warm periods, reaching Siberia's Altai Mountains within 2,000 years. This research provides insight into their swift movement despite geographical obstacles and highlights their extensive range before extinction around 40,000 years ago.
Anthropologists used computer simulations to map possible rapid migration routes of Neanderthals across Eurasia, suggesting they could have traveled over 2,000 miles in less than 2,000 years during warm periods, primarily following river valleys and crossing challenging terrains, which sheds light on their interactions with other ancient human groups.
A study suggests that Homo sapiens may have lived on the Persian plateau for 20,000 years after leaving Africa, filling a gap in their migration history. The researchers propose that this region served as a population hub for early humans, based on climate models and genetic data. However, some experts believe more evidence is needed to support this hypothesis, emphasizing the necessity of additional hominin fossils and climate data.
Scientists have proposed that a duck-billed dinosaur may have swum across an ocean from Eurasia to Africa, challenging the traditional belief that all dinosaurs were strictly land-based. This theory arose from the need to explain how the dinosaur species could have traveled such a distance when Africa was surrounded by water, and it opens up new possibilities for understanding the capabilities of these ancient creatures.
A new study tests Jared Diamond's hypothesis that Eurasia's unique East-West axis contributed to its rapid cultural development. The study finds that environmental factors and travel costs do hinder the spread of cultural traits, but contrary to Diamond's expectations, Eurasia is not significantly more ecologically homogeneous than other regions. The study emphasizes that while geography, genetics, and ecology matter, they do not determine destiny, and provides a new perspective based on quantitative data for understanding the impact of geography on cultural transmission.
A new study reveals a newly-discovered route that early humans took when they left Africa for Eurasia 80,000 years ago. In addition to the southern crossing via the Red Sea, researchers have found evidence of a northern passage through a well-watered corridor of rivers across the Sinai peninsula and through The Levant towards western Asia and northern Arabia via Jordan. The discovery of abandoned hand tools along this route supports the theory that hunter-gatherers used this land-route to migrate out of Africa.