Resetting the Human Timeline

Modern human behavior appeared much earlier than previously thought

Archaeologists have long believed that the first humans appeared about 250,000 year ago. Human remains found in Ethiopia, such as the Omo remains, date the birth of Homo sapiens to that general period.

But there is new evidence that modern human behavior appeared much earlier.

Researchers from the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem now suggest that previous estimate have been off by as much as half a million years, according to a recent press release.

The team, led by Prof. Naama Goren-Inbar, have discovered flint stone tools, animal bones, wood used for building fires and a spatial organization of living space unique to human behavior at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, a prehistoric site situated along the Dead Sea rift in Israel's southern Hula Valley.

This layer of the site has been dated to 750,000 years ago.

Their findings were published in Science magazine.

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image: stone tools discovered at the Gesher Benot Ya'aqov archaeological site in Israel (credit: Gonen Sharon for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem)