Early human migrations

Early human migrations were prehistoric movements of humans and their ancestors from Africa across the world, including the settlement of Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

Out of Africa migration: The dispersal of Homo sapiens from Africa into Eurasia, beginning roughly 70,000 to 60,000 years ago. This major dispersal carried modern humans beyond Africa and began the settlement of other continents.
Homo sapiens: The living human species, which evolved in Africa and later spread across the globe. Its dispersal accounts for the global distribution of modern humans.
Peopling of the Americas: The prehistoric settlement of North and South America by human populations arriving from northeast Asia. It is one of the latest major continental expansions in human prehistory.
Early migration to the Americas: The debate over when humans first entered the Americas and which routes they followed. Archaeological sites raise questions about arrivals earlier than the best-established evidence.
Coastal migration theory: The hypothesis that early humans spread along coastlines, exploiting marine resources and coastal habitats. Coastal routes may explain rapid movement through southern Asia toward Southeast Asia and Australia.
Hominin: A member of the human lineage after its split from the lineage leading to chimpanzees. The earliest migrations include movements by human ancestors predating Homo sapiens.
Settlement of Australia: The arrival and establishment of human populations in Australia, likely by at least 50,000 years ago. This early settlement required sea crossings and extended migration through Southeast Asia.
Solutrean hypothesis: A disputed proposal that Upper Paleolithic Europeans crossed the Atlantic and influenced Clovis toolmaking. It offers a contested alternative to migration from northeast Asia as the source of Clovis technology.
Beringia: The landmass connecting northeastern Asia and northwestern North America during periods of low sea level. It offered a route into the Americas during the last Ice Age.
Homo erectus: An extinct human species that originated in Africa and spread into parts of Eurasia. Its early expansion shows that long-distance migrations began before modern humans.

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Lake TurkanaRelated: The basin’s fossils and archaeological evidence inform accounts of human dispersal.