Human Ancestors May Have Left Africa ±500,000 Years Earlier than Scientists Had Previously Thought

[lenken]

Georgians Claim to Unearth Ancient Skull
By MISHA DZHINDZHIKHASHVILI
The Associated Press
Monday, August 22, 2005; 9:06 PMTBILISI, Georgia-Archaeologists in the former Soviet republic of Georgia have unearthed a skull they say is 1.8 million years old-part of a find that holds the oldest traces of humankind’s closest ancestors ever found in Europe

Comments

[shaydlip]

"Researchers said the findings in Georgia were about 1 million years older than any widely accepted pre-human remains in Western Europe and were the oldest found outside Africa. The discoveries have provided additional evidence that human ancestors left Africa a half-million years or more earlier than scientists had previously thought."

Then how did we think they got to Java? By magically appearing? The dates in Java go back to 1.8 mya as well.
Don't get me wrong, as a more complete skull than any of the others is awesome, but don't credit it with stuff it didn't do. It supports that we left earlier, but it's not anything new.

[lenken]

Actually, Java Man is usually dated to 1.3 million years ago, so their assertion that "The discoveries have provided additional evidence that human ancestors left Africa a half-million years or more earlier than scientists had previously thought" is correct. So, yes, this is something new.

[shaydlip]

I'm not sure where exactly you got that date, but Carl Swisher published an article back in 1994 redating all the Javanese fossils. Unfortunately, I don't see the journal article as being part of an online database, and I don't have my copy with me, but he dated one site (I think it was Mojokerto) to 1.8 mya, and I think Sangiran was 1.6 mya. He redated two other sites, but they were both earlier.
The reference is: Swisher III, C., G. H. Curtis, T. Jacob et al. 1994. Age of the earliest known hominids in Java, Indonesia. Science 263:1118-1121.
I'll double-check at home though.