Britannica Sources used in this answer

When did Homo sapiens first appear in Africa?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Quaternary paleogeography — Quaternary Distribution of landmasses, mountainous regions, shallow seas, and deep ocean basins during the Quaternary Period. Included in the paleogeographic reconstruction are the locations of the interval's subduction zones.

While older scientific literature often cited an emergence approximately 200,000 years ago, current evidence indicates that Homo sapiens appeared in Africa significantly earlier.123

The oldest known remains attributed to H. sapiens were discovered at Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, and have been dated to approximately 315,000 years ago. Additionally, remains found in the Omo Valley of Ethiopia, previously thought to be 200,000 years old, were re-evaluated in 2022 using argon-dating analysis, which suggests they date to at least 233,000 years ago.12

These findings suggest that the species may have been widely dispersed throughout the African continent much earlier than previously expected, challenging the long-standing view that East Africa was the sole "cradle" of humankind.12