The Real Eve Page #2

the Sahara, there was no return...

and few places to take refuge.

Neither they nor any

of their line survived.

They would die in severe drought

about 110,000 years ago.

Their bones were discovered

in Qafzeh caves...

near Nazareth,

in Galilee, in 1 933.

13 fragile skeletons.

One a woman,

a tiny baby at her feet.

When these bones

were first uncovered...

they were the oldest complete

modern human skeletons ever found.

The numerous skeletons that have

been found in caves in Israel...

at Qafzeh and Skhul shows that

there were modern humans...

outside of Africa

over 100,000 years ago.

They may have gone out

to the Nile corridor...

through Sinai and

into the Middle East.

But they didn't go any further.

In a sense, they were a dead end.

It would be 40,000 years

before they would try again.

80,000 years ago the world

was cooling down again.

Once again, the ice caps were

advancing, drying out the lands.

Life became much harder.

As Africa dried up,

so did the drinking water.

Ocean records show sea levels

dropping dramatically...

as the world's water

became locked in ice.

As the game spread north,

our hunter-gatherers...

were forced to become fishermen

and beachcombers.

This is our new Eve,

our new family.

Direct descendants of the daughters

of the original genetic Eve...

now living on the coast,

surviving on the harvest of the sea.

Our entire survival has always

been at mercy of the climate.

When times were good

we could spread out.

A bigger range meant more food.

But the ice age froze the world

and the deserts closed in...

forcing our groups into smaller

territories on the coast.

Their beachcombing diet consisted

of fish, scallops, oysters and clams.

But the Red Sea became

much saltier...

making fishing and

beachcombing more difficult.

Until recently, there was little

evidence our ancestors occupied...

the coastal areas of east Africa

or exploited marine resources.

This is Sifi Bearhay,

a geologist.

In 1 999, he was part

of an international expedition...

Iooking for evidence of modern

human occupation in Eritrea.

In the Gulf of Zula, they stumbled

on a remarkable discovery...

of stone tools imbedded in an

ancient fossilized coral reef.

The reef was dated

125,000 years old.

This is the world's first

recorded oyster bar.

6,5 kilometers long and 15 meters

above the current sea levels.

It's the oldest evidence of

beachcombing in the world.

Buried in it are human tools,

along with fossilized oyster...

clam and scallop shells.

It's a clear evidence that our

ancestors were exploiting the sea.

This is the unit where we have

an inter-stratified layer...

of big oyster and

mollusk shells at the base.

They're pretty quite horizontal.

And this was a platform where

modern man used to be walking...

and dumping their stone tools and

some of the shells they were eating.

This is a hand ax,

with a sharp end...

and some of the shells that have

been shed from this layer.

They've been using this for

breaking the shells and eating them.

And when they were finished with it,

they would dump the hand ax...

and also the shells

and walk to the next site.

But the most important thing is not

this, because you cannot date it.

It's what you find "in situ" which

makes it very, very important.

If you see this one,

is an obsidian tool.

They have been used to smash some

of these oyster bedded that you see.

You don't see both completely

enclosed, they have been smashed...

and the goodies have been eaten.

And these are some of those

very important stone tools...

that have been discovered.

This is the first place where

beachcombing for marine resources...

have been documented worldwide.

And very well.

These shell remains

are also a vital clue...

to the reasons why our ancestors

made the long walk out of Africa.

On a constant diet of seafood, maybe

more children would have survived.

But the increasing numbers made

the demand for food more desperate.

Camps like this one would have

numbered just a few hundred.

At one time, there were only about

10,000 humans alive in the world.

We were as endangered a species

as the great apes are today.

When the beachcomber's spearfishing

failed to support them...

they no longer had a choice.

If they would survive, they had

to move across the Red Sea.

Freak monsoons were watering the

green inviting hills of the Yemen.

Scientists have always thought our

ancestors migrated from Africa...

many times, group after group.

And it was believed they always went

north via Egypt and modern Israel.

But the DNA trail

tells a different story.

Professor Steven Oppenheimer is one

of the world's foremost authorities...

on current genetic research

into DNA tracking.

By putting together the genetic tree

with prehistoric weather patterns...

he's one of the first to come up

with the extraordinary idea...

that our ancestors came out of

Africa by a single southern route.

This beach is on the west coast

of the Red Sea, the African side.

0ver on the other side, we can see

the mountains of Yemen.

I believe this is where our ancestors

crossed on the first stage...

of their journey

to the rest of the world.

These straits are known locally to

fishermen as the Gates of Grief...

because of the terrible

fierce currents crossing.

But 80,000 years ago, the sea level

was 150 foot further down.

As a result, a number of islands

and reefs appeared...

which allowed

our ancestors to cross...

as it were on stepping-stones

over to the Yemen.

Man had to come out of Africa in the

end, all his primate relatives had...

but the timing and the route were

determined by climate swings.

Driven by hunger, shrinking habitat,

and maybe the first stirrings...

of the restless human curiosity

about the land ahead...

our precious group of modern

humans prepared to leave.

There were two routes out of Africa:

the north of the Red Sea...

across the Suez,

and into the Middle East.

And here in the south, across

the Gates of Grief, into Yemen...

and on through the

south Arabian coast to India.

Both routes are possible.

But, to get through to the north...

our ancestors would have

to cross the Sahara desert.

And at the time,

it was even drier than it is today.

Here in the south, all they

had to do was to cross...

this short stretch of water, only

10 miles across to the Yemen.

So, this was a region they

could go to with confidence.

I think this beach is very

important in human history...

because I think this is the place

that our ancestors crossed...

from Africa to the Yemen...

on the first step of their journey

to the rest of the world.

This was the only place that they

had a successful exit from Africa.

I believe the most important journey

the human race ever took...

started here on this beach

80,000 years ago.

One small group of people,

one exodus.

The single most important event

in the population of the world.

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