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Humans spread from Ethiopia 100,000 years ago, study

Posted on by Elias Kifle

Around the world from Addis Ababa

Two studies of genetic mutations tracked how humans spread from Ethiopia 100,000 years ago.

By KAREN KAPLAN, Los Angeles Times

Scrutinizing the DNA of 938 people from 51 distinct populations around the world, geneticists have created a detailed map of how humans spread from their home base in sub-Saharan Africa to populate the farthest reaches of the globe over the past 100,000 years.

The pattern of genetic mutations, to be published today (Feb. 21, 2008) in the journal Science, offers striking evidence that an ancient band of explorers left what is now Ethiopia and — along with their descendants — went on to colonize North Africa, the Middle East, Europe, southern and central Asia, Australia and its surrounding islands, the Americas and East Asia.

A second analysis based on some of the same DNA samples corroborated the results. Those findings, published Thursday in the journal Nature, demonstrated that the greater the geographic distance between a population and its African ancestors, the more changes had accumulated in its genes.

The story of human migration revealed by DNA “compliments what’s known through history, linguistics or anthropology,” said Jun Li, the University of Michigan geneticist who led the Science study.

Both research groups relied on DNA from blood samples collected by anthropologists around the world as part of the Human Genome Diversity Project, a controversial effort from the mid-1990s to gather genetic specimens from thousands of populations, including many indigenous tribes.

In both studies, the researchers analyzed more than half a million single-letter changes among the approximately 3 billion As, Cs, Ts and Gs that make up the human genome. Those changes — called “single nucleotide polymorphisms,” or SNPs — begin as random mutations and accumulate over time as they are passed from one generation to the next.

Each time a small group left its home territory to found a new population, the migration ultimately led to a unique pattern of SNPs. Comparing those patterns, the researchers were able to show that humans spread around the globe through a series of migrations that originated from a single location near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

17 thoughts on “Humans spread from Ethiopia 100,000 years ago, study”

  1. “Comparing those patterns, the researchers were able to show that humans spread around the globe through a series of migrations that originated from a single location near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.”

    I know the precise location, that’s where my retarded cousin lives. I know for a fact he has not evolved for millennia. He is now serving as a low-level cadre for Woyanne.

  2. Finally we have modern day science agreeing with what our Ethiopian fore-fathers have been saying all along: Ethiopia is where all started. I wouldn’t be surprised if the garden of Eden is in or around modern day Ethiopia, as the bible clearly sugests that, one of the river: the Ghedion river being diverged into the garden of Eden. One thing we can learn from this though, that Our fore-fathers did not just tell us that, Ethiopia is a special place, worth dying for on an empety rhetoric; they knew what Ethiopia means long before the science of genetics and archeology came into existence.

  3. This proves that Ethiopia and Ethiopians were there for many thousand years. On the contrary Meles claims that Ethiopia is 100 years old. We are the origin of human race and civilization. The question is this generation is destroying Ethiopia instade of building it. Specially, the Meles Gang made a lot of damage than any previous governments. I am ashamed of them, they are sellout. Let’s unite and get rid of this mafia like group, the sooner the better before they inflict more damage to our country.

  4. One implication of this finding, if it’s true, is this: If Ethiopia is the origin of modern day human beings, and if Ethiopia was inhabited by human beings for such a long time, thousands of years, it’s a telling story that we’re so behind much of the rest of world? Negatively, and perhaps realistically put, the difference in where we’re now, how far behind we’re compared with the rest of human beings, esp., in the west, is a shocking evidence that should causes us many sleepless nights, if we truly ask ourselves, what has gone wrong with us? We were there much earlier than many but then we’re behind much later than the rest of humanity? What’s wrong with us?

    I hope the so-called scientific story is not true; if it’s true, it’s a telling evidence as to how much we’re behind from the rest of the world. That is not going to be the source of pride. Let’s think about the consequence of the article.

  5. According to the new curriculum in Ethiopian history for high schools published under the guidance of the Tigrai-Dedebit educators, Ethiopia is only 100 years old, so the retarded Woyannes who are yet to evolve are likely to be the first people along the White Supremacists to challenge these findings.

  6. From now on to the end of the world, the Asians should not say they are Asians; the Australians should not say they are Australians; the Europeans should not say they are Europeans; the North Americans should not say they are North Americans; the South Americans should not say they are South Americans; the Africans should not say they are Africans; the Antarcticans should not say they are Antarcticans; the Oceanians should not say they are Oceanians – they are all Ethiopians, and they should say: “We are Ethiopians.” And we Ethiopians are proud of being the fathers and mothers of the rest of the human race. When I was a student at Church School many years ago, I was told genet (Eden) was in Ethiopia, particularly in Gojam region along the River Nile being the Gihon River, and the Geez language was the language of the Angels. This is the country we all have to fight for to preserve its ancient history from being destroyed by Al Amoudi and his followers.

  7. I like the last conclution – Researchers were able to show that humans spread around the globe is originated from a single location near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

    Very interested, I tought we all originated from “Axum” hahahahah

    Love you guys

  8. Ethiopia is the words of God. In the beginning God created the earth and the heaven; Ethiopia was born. God words are Ethiopia.

    Amen.God separated the firmament form the earth and called it water. Life began in God’s words. The words were sweet and eternal; in them was created unique and lovely, he called it Ethiopia. Amen. God created the rest of the human beings in the yoke that was turned into fruition; he called her Ethiopia. Once again, Amen and God bless Ethiopians.

    Ethiopians, we are proud of God and Ethiopia; for God created the earth and the heaven and for Ethiopia the mother of all living beings, for God words she is blessed and blessed in the minds and hearts of the residents of mother Earthethiopia. Amen and Amen.

    Everything is determined by its originality for it is the determining factor for all the things man discovered by using his intelligence and wisdom. The wisdom of being original is nothing but being an Ethiopian. If you are an Ethiopian it all means, you are the original and eternal on earth and in heaven.

    Ethiopians don’t die. Amen.

  9. May be just may be according to the theory of human civilization, what is now Ethiopia could have been the cradle land for humanity, but when the creative minority who have become the dominant minority decided to move on and explore the world, challenge the status quo of the old times, challenge their environments and grow towards a new civilizations, the dormant majority, the proletariats remained behind, refused to change, live with their old believes and myths. Out of those dormant majorities were created moron leaders and dictators who sustain the old ways of doing business. May be the people of Ethiopia who now live in the northern parts, I am sorry to say so they are the very ones who are conservative nationalists and owners of whatever myths Ethiopia has, are the among the populations of the planet with an arrested civilization. It takes a long struggle by the creative minorities of the present day Ethiopia to change the shameful past of this country and make it what it should be today and tomorrow.
    We need to liberate our people from the colonizing attitudes that makes us submissive and believe in our dorminant leaders as people with mighty powers and genuine leaders. Their is a lot of brainwashing things to be done for us to be able to see the realities that is hidden form our ignorant minds. Even if Ethiopia had a glorius past, that glorius past is not owned by us, it is not ours, it belongs to those who lived during those days and who are now burried and subjects of anthropological studies. The history we own today is the shameful histories of the tyrants and the dormant people who supported them and carried them on their shoulders for so long.
    Laluta continua,
    Nagaati

  10. writer#9 you are so negative.You are blind with your own negative thoughts.Ethiopia has rich history more than many countries in the world.People like you can’t see the good part of our beloved Ethiopia.Change your outlook.

  11. It is absurd we Ham and Sem decendants beleive that the Ethiopia in the bible and greek mythologies refers to us. In those old books and legends Ethiopia refers to the whole of Africa. The center for black civilization might as well be in modern day Ethiopia or near by, but then the Amharas, the Tigrays, the Oromos, the Agaws, the Sidamas, the Gurages and the Hararis should not call them selves ‘Ethiopians’, ’cause they are invaders from faraway lands
    NB=Present day Ethiopians have 40 % caucacian genes!

  12. Seriously,I think there is a lot that one can learn from the advances of Modern Genetics.The Human genome project in particular with its revolutionary breakthrough of being able to sequence (read each individual gene-word interms of its DNA-letters which are the nucelotide bases ATGC) the totality of the human genes(genome),has opened up many new areas of enquiry while enhancing the old ones.

    The techniques of Molecular Genetics are very sound and they are awaiting still further refinement in response to the rigorous demands of research.

    Studies in the pattern of distribution of human diseases and human migration are only two areas benefitting from this mushrooming of knowledge in Human Biology.

    I have to confess,though,that I haven’t read these papers on Science and Nature to make full sense of them.I believe it is always important to grapple with the original papers rather than rely on truncated rendition of a journalist’s report.I am of the opinion that we should all be scientifically literate in order to intelligently debate these issues that are increasingly and dramatically affecting our lives.We can not afford leaving them in the hands of experts as we can not leave politics in the hands of elites.

    The paper, to the best of my knowledge, does not tell us any thing new about the origin of mankind being Africa or present day Ethiopia.We knew that all along.It is curiously new,however, to be told that the locus of that migration is near Addis Ababa.I do not honestly know how the research managed to narrow down that locality to the environs of Addis.

    On the other hand,I wish that the paper shed light rather on the genetic diversity in Ethiopia,the pattern of internal migration and whether this ‘compiments with what is known through anthropology and linguistics’.

    The vexed question of ethnic identities in the current politics of Ethiopia,I think, merits a scientific commentary on it.

  14. Well, there are few who are born to hate everything of Ethiopia and Ethiopians; and , as a matter of fact, they are always plant the seed of doubt in us; the trueth is that these individuals are always void of reality and facts; hence, they will never have a thought that would make them of who they are.

    Ethiopians have the right to srtip of those doubters the right to be Ethiopians because they are not worth of who they are.

    For sure, these doubters have always been arguing with God about his eternal love and his healing hands. These doubters are not necessary ethists nor scientists; they are they who they are today and who they have been for centuries. It is unfortunate they are included or clssified as Ethiopians because they are human beings made up of blocks of DNA.

    These people failed in the past attempting to forge the history of Ethiopia not knowing the world had facts and truth about Ethiopia. To these people, the existence of Ethiopia is wished to be ephmeral and forgetable; but, God and science proved these enemies of Ethiopia wrong.

    Since Ethiopians have both religious and scientfic rights to choose who should be an Ethiopian or who should be the Ethiopians, Bad human beings can’t be Ethiopians because they are born enemies of facts and truth.

  15. When I read the article on Los Angeles Time few thoughts came to my mind:

    People from Eritrea and Ethiopia are fleeing they homeland by foot and reaching the Mediterranean shores in months. The of genetic map route is consistent with current
    events.

    Most of the Habesha are great runners and have endurance. If thing get harder: as current history has shown environmental catastrophe and recurrent droughts can force people to migrate where the pastures are greener.

    Another explanation: Basically Habesha, hate each other and prefer to live far away from each other. Look how bad the current situation in Horn of Africa is. I bet 100,000 ago people were forced to leave because of abuses from village tyrants and bullies.

    One other plausible explanation might be one Habesha clans must have committed some crimes around Addis and was forced to flee with beautiful Almazs end ended up somewhere in Middle East and found the kingdom of Sheba and Ge’ez language and from there spread like a wild fire

  16. #9, I’m sorry but I don’t know how not to be proud of my country. Perhaps you should ask yourself about what makes you shameful about you and your country…look deeper…into yourself, family, friends and so on.
    A nation’s wealth and freedom grows slowly and don’t tell me that we haven’t seen change…don’t tell me we haven’t grown. Perhaps you can’t see!
    I knew about this fact not via LA times, nor ethiopian review. Let your family and uncestors tell you what you are worth and try to add something to it and grow more. If you keep thinking about the past, you will miss your future and certaily you have already missed your present. It is not too late and I suggest you start by loving yourself and your family. Live, learn, be nice…
    Negaati bulaa!

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