Salt, Stone, and the Spark of Us

For decades, the map of our species’ origins has tilted toward East Africa. The familiar story starts somewhere near the Rift Valley, follows river corridors north, then spirals outward into Eurasia and beyond. Yet a growing body of archaeological, paleoenvironmental, and cultural evidence suggests a different coastline may have shaped us first. The far southern tip of Africa, with its restless tides and generous rocky shores, may have been the stage¹ where Homo sapiens first learned to think, plan, and cooperate in ways recognizably human.

Map of Africa showing the possible coastal route taken by modern humans together with a hypothetical timeline for the journey. The area shaded in black represents the shelf area that would have been exposed during glacial maxima of −120 m MSL (modified after Compton, Citation2011). The exposed shelf area during the out of Africa migration would have been between about −50 m and −100 m below the current MSL.\

This is not a wholesale rewriting of human origins. It is a shift in emphasis. If East Africa remains a genetic and fossil powerhouse, the southern Cape coast offers a remarkably layered record of how our ancestors behaved. And behavior, more than bones, may reveal where the spark truly caught.

Map showing some of the southern African rock caves and shelters occupied by hominins in the past and mentioned in this review. The location of the main section of the relic Palaeo-Agulhas Plain in the southern Cape, now under 130 m of water, is also shown.