Early humans in the Levant
Modern humans reach the Middle East 100,000 years ago — and this wave does not last.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 30 thousand years
- Known to
- ± 10 thousand years
- Era
- Late Pleistocene, Quaternary
The caves of Skhul and Qafzeh in Israel contain anatomically modern human burials dated to roughly 120,000 to 90,000 years ago, some with grave goods including deliberately placed animal jaws and red ochre. They arrive during a warm, wet phase when the Sahara and Arabia were passable. When conditions deteriorate the population disappears from the region and Neanderthals return. It is a failed dispersal, and it shows that leaving Africa happened repeatedly before it succeeded.