# Why did our prehistoric ancestors migrate out of Africa?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-our-prehistoric-ancestors-migrate-out-of-africa/549944>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 11, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-our-prehistoric-ancestors-migrate-out-of-africa/549944 "2010-08-11T16:16:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2018, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-our-prehistoric-ancestors-migrate-out-of-africa/549944/82 "2018-04-10T20:45:20Z")

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> [@dtilque](#):
>
> The real question is not “Why?” but rather “When?”. I ask this about a year ago: [When did modern humans leave Africa?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=820726), and the best answer was about 88,000 years ago based on genetics.

I’m not sure why there had to be a _single_ migration eastward. If the route “made sense” at all, wouldn’t different migrations at different times be expected?

But I did click that thread and found this:

> [@When did modern humans leave Africa?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-modern-humans-leave-africa/781370/4):
>
> _Home georgicus_ is dated at 1.8M years ago. This is a fascinated group of fossils found in Georgia (the country).

Do we know exactly what fascinated the _Homo georgicus_? I’ll guess it was that old mystery, the puzzling nature of _Femino georgicus_.

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