Desert speleothems reveal climatic window for African exodus of early modern humans
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23328397 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Anton Vaks, Антон Вакс (0000-0002-2982-5220, Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Miryam Bar‐matthew (0000-0001-8373-5341, Geological Survey of Israel), Miryam Bar-Matthews, Avner Ayalon (0000-0002-6888-4995, Geological Survey of Israel), Alan Matthews (0000-0003-4811-5299, Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Ludwik Halicz (Geological Survey of Israel), Amos Frumkin (0000-0002-2028-4210, Hebrew University of Jerusalem) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 35 |
| Issue | 9 |
| Pages | 831 |
| Publication date | 2007-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Geology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0091-7613 • E-ISSN: 1943-2682 |
| Publisher | Geological Society of America (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1130/g23794a.1 |
| OpenAlex | W2130415228 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 64 |
| References cited | 33 |
One of the first movements of early modern humans out of Africa occurred 130-100 thousand years ago (ka), when they migrated northward to the Levant region. The climatic conditions that accompanied this migration are still under debate. Using high-precision multicollector-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) U-Th methods, we dated carbonate cave deposits (speleothems) from the central and southern Negev Desert of Israel, located at the northeastern margin of the Saharan-Arabian Desert. Speleothems grow only when rainwater enters the unsaturated zone, and this study reveals that a major cluster of wet episodes (the last recorded in the area) occurred between 140 and 110 ka. This episodic wet period coincided with increased monsoonal precipitation in the southern parts of the Saharan-Arabian Desert. The disappearance at this time of the desert barrier between central Africa and the Levant, and particularly in the Sinai-Negev land bridge between Africa and Asia, would have created a climatic "window" for early modern human dispersion to the Levant. © 2007 The Geological Society of America.
Ancient history · Archaeology · Desert (philosophy) · Hebrew · Judaism · Land of Israel · Library science · Tel aviv · Theology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Classics · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · History · Marine and environmental studies · Philosophy
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| Unique citing works | 64 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,56 |
| Citation span | 2008 - 2025 (18) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 55 |