The BBC is reporting on a talk by archaeologist Michael Petraglia, at the British Science Festival:
But Dr Michael Petraglia, of Oxford University, and colleagues say stone artefacts found in the Arabian Peninsula and India point to an exodus starting about 70,000 to 80,000 years ago - and perhaps even earlier.
...
"I believe that multiple populations came out of Africa in the period between 120,000 and 70,000 years ago," he said. "Our evidence is stone tools that we can date."
Most of the tools are from far inland - hundreds of kilometres from the coasts. This means it was more likely humans migrated by land than in boats, he said.
I think the Neandertal genome has pretty much killed the "southern route" theory that had modern humans beachcombing their way across the Bab-al-Mandab.
Right now we're investigating the genetics, I'll hopefully be able to share some details soon.
