Africa’s east coast netted ancient humans
By Bruce Bower
Modern humans lived on the African coast of the Red Sea about 125,000 years ago, pushing back the date for the earliest seaside settlement by at least 10,000 years, a new study finds. The discovery raises the possibility that ancient humans left Africa by following the Red Sea coast into southern Asia as well as by trekking up the eastern Mediterranean coast into central Asia.
The excavation, directed by geologist Robert C. Walter of Mexico’s Centro de Investigación Científica de Educación Superior in Ensenada, has unearthed stone tools and shellfish remains in an exposed reef that straddles Eritrea’s Red Sea shore. To assign a date to the artifacts, the scientists measured radioactive isotopes in fossil coral surrounding them.