“Out of Africa I”: Current Problems and Future Prospects

Abstract

This paper examines current weaknesses in the Out of Africa I model, and indicates why it is less robust than often proposed. It examines the main gaps in our understanding of hominin dispersals and settlement in Asia before 0.5 Ma, and highlights those shortcomings that have a realistic chance of being rectified, and which most impede fruitful discussion of early Asian prehistory. It also proposes that any discussion of early hominin dispersals out of (and possibly into) Africa before 0.5 Ma needs to take much fuller account than has often been the case of recent data on climatic change across southern Asia.