A small remnant of humans survived the last ice age in the Garden of Eden

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Humans survived ice age by sheltering in 'Garden of Eden', claim scientists

By Niall Firth


The last humans on Earth may have survived an ice age by retreating to a small patch of land nicknamed 'the garden of Eden'.

The strip of land on Africa's southern coast - around 240 miles east of Cape Town - became the only place that remained habitable during the devastating ice age, scientists claim.

The sudden change in temperature wiped out many species elsewhere around 195,000 years ago.

Researchers believe this could account for the fact that humans have less genetic diversity than other species.
The caves along the South African coast where early man may have sheltered and survived the ice age

The caves along the South African coast where early man may have sheltered and survived the ice age

Some scientists even believe that the human race's population may have fallen to just a few hundred individuals who managed to survive in one location.

Professor Curtis Marean, of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University discovered ancient human artifacts in the isolated caves around an area known as Pinnacle Point, South Africa.

'Shortly after Homo sapiens first evolved, the harsh climate conditions nearly extinguished our species,' said Professor Marean.

'Recent finds suggest the small population that gave rise to all humans alive today survived by exploiting a unique combination of resources along the southern coast of Africa.'

Humans would have been able to survive because of rich vegetation that was available in the area.

The sea would have also been a good source of food as currents carrying nutrients would have passed by the shore, bringing with them a plentiful supply of fish, the team will say in a new research paper.

Professor Marean said the caves contain archaeological remains going back at least 164,000 years.

Professor Chris Stringer, a human origins expert at the Natural History Museum in London, said he agreed with Professor Marean's views on the early evolution of intelligence.

But he said he was not convinced by the argument that one band of humans were the origin of modern man.

'However, I no longer think that there was ever a single small population of humans in one region of Africa from whom we are all uniquely descended. We know, for example, that there were early modern humans in Ethiopia 160,000 years ago and others in Morocco, and populations like those may also have contributed to our ancestry.'

Many researchers believe that modern humans are thought to have evolved about 195,000 years ago in East Africa, and within 50,000 years had spread to other parts of the continent.

It is thought that 70,000 years ago a dry period caused Red Sea levels to fall and the gap across its mouth to shrink from 18 miles to eight miles.

A tribe of as few as 200 period took advantage of this and crossed to Arabia.

Last year Professor Morean's team announced that they believed stone age blacksmiths mastered the use of fire to make tools at Pinnacle Point.

Knowing how to use fire may have helped the early humans who left Africa 50,000 to 60,000 years ago to cope with colder conditions in Europe.

It may also have given them a big advantage over the resident Neanderthals they encountered.

By 35,000 years ago, the Neanderthals, a sub-species of humans whose own origins were in Africa, were mostly extinct.

Professor Curtis Marean, , said: 'The command of fire, documented by our study of heat treatment, provides us with a potential explanation for the rapid migration of these Africans across glacial Eurasia.

'They were masters of fire and heat and stone, a crucial advantage as these tropical people penetrated the cold lands of the Neanderthal.'

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