Humans passed through Lebanon on their way from Africa to Europe

Fossil and genetic evidence suggests that anatomically modern humans originated in Africa and dispersed into Europe around 40,000-50,000 years ago, at the start of the Late Stone Age. Human remains from a site in Lebanon called Ksâr ’Akil have led scientists to hypothesize that modern humans used the coast of the Mediterranean to spread from Africa into Europe.

Few fossils of modern humans dated to this time period have been found, however; furthermore, remains are geographically limited to a few sites: Ksâr ’Akil and Manot Cave, located in the eastern Mediterranean, and Oase, located in Romania. This scant fossil record has proved difficult to interpret, leading to imprecise chronologies of human movement.

Adding to these uncertainties, archaeologists recently found ornamental shell beads in Europe that predate their first occurrence in Levant, the area of the Mideast that borders on the Mediterranean. If evidence from the Late Stone Age in Europe actually predates finds in the Levant, it raises serious questions about whether modern humans passed along a Levantine corridor on their way to colonize Europe.

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