There is some evidence that modern humans left Africa at least 125,000 years ago using two different routes : through the Nile Valley heading to the Middle East , at least into modern Israel ( Qafzeh : 120,000 – 100,000 years ago ) ; and a second route through the present-day Bab-el-Mandeb Strait on the Red Sea ( at that time , with a much lower sea level and narrower extension ) , crossing to the Arabian Peninsula and settling in places like the present-day United Arab Emirates ( 125,000 years ago ) and Oman ( 106,000 years ago ) , and possibly reaching the Indian Subcontinent ( Jwalapuram : 75,000 years ago ) . Although no human remains have yet been found in these three places , the apparent similarities between the stone tools found at Jebel Faya , those from Jwalapuram and some from Africa suggest that their creators were all modern humans . These findings might give some support to the claim that modern humans from Africa arrived at southern China about 100,000 years ago ( Zhiren Cave , Zhirendong , Chongzuo City : 100,000 years ago ; and the Liujiang hominid ( Liujiang County ) : controversially dated at 139,000 – 111,000 years ago ) . Dating results of the Lunadong ( Bubing Basin , Guangxi , southern China ) teeth , which include a right upper second molar and a left lower second molar , indicate that the molars may be as old as 126,000 years . Since these previous exits from Africa did not leave traces in the results of genetic analyses based on the Y chromosome and on MtDNA ( which represent only a small part of the human genetic material ) , it seems that those modern humans did not survive in large numbers and were assimilated by our major antecessors . An explanation for their extinction ( or small genetic imprint ) may be the Toba eruption ( 74,000 years ago ) , though some argue it scarcely impacted human population
Toba eruption
Toba catastrophe theory
Early human migrations