Journal of Anthropology and Archaeology

Accounting for hominins’ fast exit from Africa (“The Out of Africa Event 1”) due to widespread wildfires, accidently and inevitably ignited by them, c.a. 1.8 – 1.6 mya
Michael Iannicelli

Abstract
An established hypothesis explaining “The Out of Africa Event1” says that the cold climate or very arid conditions of the Pleistocene Epoch were most probably the driving-force of the H. erectus‟ migration out of Africa and into Eurasia, 1.8 – 1.6 mya, but a perspective is offered here which blames frequent, lightning-strikes and misusage of fire by hominins as the agents that led to uncontrolled, widespread wildfires. Paleo-winds advanced the wildfires according to wind direction, thus intensifying the widespread threat to the chagrin of the hominins. A Pleistocene, temporary, land bridge, enabled some hominins to escape the threat of widespread wildfires by allowing them to cross over from east Africa to Eurasia. One anomaly noted is that either the wildfires or some vast impediment prevented H. erectus from climbing latitudinal lines to north Africa at that time, but that delay to the mid-latitudes may have ended coincidently with Eurasian travel on the eastern coastline of the juxtaposed Red Sea. The sea would have acted as a natural fire-retardant allowing hominins to finally move up to the mid-latitudes. The northbound migration would have also forced tropically-derived hominins to quickly adapt to environmental change and low temperatures while a rationalization is proposed concerning how they may have tackled their newest challenges.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jaa.v5n2a4