As it's commonly known in anthropology, homo sapiens originated in Africa, after which they migrated from the continent to reach Europe and other lands. When did this great migration occur?

For a while, the oldest human fossil found outside of Africa was dated to be from 90,000 to 120,000 years ago, indicating a migration around that time period. The fossil was found in Israel.

Recently, scientists found an older fossil outside of Africa. Also found in Israel, this one is the oldest one yet, indicating that a human migration out of Africa may have occurred earlier than previously expected. Specifically, 50,000 years earlier. (The fossil, a human jawbone, was dated to be from between 177,000 to 194,000 years ago).

The people who lived in the cave from which the fossil was discovered, are suspected to have lived their as a base camp, an ancient version of a mini-village. They hunted gazelles and deer, and they ate ostrich eggs.

The jawbone was compared to morphological characteristics of early human species, such as Neanderthals and Homo Erectus, before being labeled as too-modern to be from such ancient species.

Before this discovery, scientists thought that there was one mass migration of homo sapiens out of Africa. Now, they believe that there may have been a bunch of small flows rather than one giant exit.

It's amazing isn't it, how convoluted our early history is, and how much there is to discover?