Where Did Homo sapiens Go After Leaving Africa?

Then, after supposedly hanging out together in Mesopotamia for roughly 15,000 years, they decided to settle all of Asia and Europe, starting roughly 45,000 years ago. Most were nomadic hunter-gatherers that tracked large game. The researchers also noticed that there were two waves of mass migrations—the first one at 45,000 years ago colonized East Asia and Oceania, and the second wave colonized West Eurasia and Siberia.

True account is recorded in the tower of Babel and “Table of Nations” chapters of Genesis 10 and 11.

Does any of this sound strangely familiar? A massive group of humans gathering at one place in Mesopotamia (specifically near Iraq), then migrating from there to Eurasia, Oceania, and Australia and then (eventually) on to the Americas? Well, it should, because the true account is recorded in the tower of Babel and “Table of Nations” chapters of Genesis 10 and 11.

We read in Genesis 11:1–2, “Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.” God was displeased with the people for rebelling against his command to spread out on the earth, so he confused their language (establishing what would later become known as the different language families) and “dispersed them over the face of all the earth” (Genesis 11:9).

Then when we read Genesis 10:21–31 (chronologically occurring after Genesis 11:1–9), we see that some groups stayed relatively close to Babel (mostly Shem’s progeny), migrating to Middle East Saudia Arabia and Persia (Iran) (the “hub” of this study). Some of Ham’s progeny also stayed close (Canaan and Nimrod), whereas others migrated to Africa as well as East Asia and Oceania (the first wave of this study), per Genesis 10:6–20. Lastly, Japheth’s descendants migrated to Western Eurasia and Siberia, per Genesis 10:2–5 (the second wave of this study). Many of these grandsons and great-grandsons of Noah still have their names recorded in ancient and even modern records of the places they settled.

They were dispersed by God at the time of Babel and immediately started colonizing the world.

While the evolutionary time frames assigned to these migrations are obviously based on a false understanding of human history (such as how long it takes for a human society of supposed hunter-gatherers to embrace agriculture, urbanization, etc.), the kernel of truth found here actually supports the biblical record. Mankind did not sit around for 230,000 years before suddenly venturing out, then sit around for another 15,000 years before slowly migrating all over the world. They were dispersed by God at the time of Babel and immediately started colonizing the world. In fact, we read that Nimrod started conquering and colonizing much of Iraq, Syria, and Turkey right away.

While this study might be surprising to the evolutionary paradigm, it fits exactly (minus the time frames) with what Scripture records—except for one big detail. These first post-flood people did not migrate out of Africa, but out of Ararat (the area of Turkey/Armenia) and from there congregated in southern Iraq (Babel) before being dispersed. The answers were in Genesis all along!

You can learn more about this topic in Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson’s book, Traced, and enjoy hearing from Dr. Jeanson in his video series, The New History of the Human Race, which you can find on the Answers in Genesis YouTube channel and our streaming service, Answers TV.

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This item was discussed Monday on Answers News with cohosts Dr. Jennifer Hall Rivera, Dr. Tim Chaffey, and Roger Patterson. Answers News is our weekly news program filmed live before a studio audience here at the Creation Museum, broadcast on our Answers in Genesis YouTube channel, and posted to Answers TV. We also covered the following topics:

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Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.