Italian
Gli scienziati da molto tempo ritengono che proveniamo da una regione africana, ma un nuovo studio ha localizzato il luogo esatto in un'area a sud del fiume Zambesi, che comprende quelli che ora sono il Botswana, lo Zimbabwe e la Namibia.
Questa piccola comunità della Namibia orientale canta e danza in quello che adesso i ricercatori ritengono sia il nostro luogo d'origine.
Ovvero, il luogo da cui provengono tutti gli esseri umani moderni.
"We've known for a very long time that modern humans arose in Africa, but where in Africa? has been that question."
La professoressa Vanessa Hayes, insieme alla sua squadra di ricerca della Sydney University e del Garvan Institute, ha pubblicato la sua ipotesi sul giornale scientifico Nature.
La sua équipe sostiene che si possono ripercorrere le tracce degli esseri umani moderni fino a 200.000 anni fa in una regione a sud del fiume Zambesi.
La regione, una zona paludosa grande come la Nuova Zelanda, si estende attraverso la Namibia orientale, il Botswana del nord e lo Zimbabwe occidentale.
130.000 anni fa gli esseri umani moderni iniziarono a migrare in direzione nord-est.
E 20.000 anni più tardi, iniziammo a muoverci verso sud-ovest.
La professoressa Hayes sostiene che tutte queste informazioni arrivano dallo studio del DNA.
La sua squadra di ricerca ha studiato la discendenza materna di 1.200 persone in Namibia e Sud Africa.
Ha poi preso i risultati e consultato un fisico climatico per creare un modello della regione in quell'era e analizzare perché avremmo potuto avere origine da lì e perché ci rimanemmo per così tanto tempo prima di migrare.
"What he could show was that the region was in a mega-drought. It was not a hospitable area to live in. But the wetland would have created an oasis in the middle of this desert."
La dottoressa ritiene poi che gli esseri umani moderni si siano mossi ancora oltre dal loro luogo d'origine.
"The climate changes, northeast of the homeland. And it becomes more humid, which creates what we call 'green corridors'. Perfect vegetation for us modern humans that like to explore."
L'équipe che ha curato questa ricerca spera di aver presentato una tesi articolata, ma ammette che i ritrovamenti hanno aperto un dibattito nella comunità scientifica, dato che altri studi ritengono che gli esseri umani moderni provengano dall'Africa orientale.
"What we are seeing for living modern humans - not just homo sapiens, we're only talking about homo sapiens sapiens, people that live today - we believe we've got extremely strong evidence but, of course, it's a hypothesis because we're not living there now."
English
Scientists have long believed we came from the African region but a new report pin-points the exact place in an area south of the Zambezi river, encompassing parts of what is now Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
This small community in Eastern Namibia is singing and dancing on what researchers now believe could be our homeland.
That is - the place all modern humans came from.
"We've known for a very long time that modern humans arose in Africa, but where in Africa? has been that question."
Professor Vanessa Hayes and her team at Sydney University and the Garvan Institute have published their hypothesis in the journal, Nature.
Her team says modern humans can be traced back to a region south of the Zambezi River 200,000 years ago.
The region, a wetland the size of New Zealand, spread through eastern Namibia, through to northern Botswana and western Zimbabwe.
130,000 years ago, modern humans started to migrate northeast.
And 20,000 years after that, we started to move southwest.
Professor Hayes says all this information came from a study of DNA.
They looked at the maternal lineage of more than 1,200 people in Namibia and South Africa.
Her team took the results and consulted a climate physicist, to model the region at that time and consider why we could have originated there and why we stayed for so long before migrating.
"What he could show was that the region was in a mega-drought. It was not a hospitable area to live in. But the wetland would have created an oasis in the middle of this desert."
She says modern humans would have then moved increasingly further from their homeland.
"The climate changes, northeast of the homeland. And it becomes more humid, which creates what we call 'green corridors'. Perfect vegetation for us modern humans that like to explore".
The team behind this research hopes they've come up with a strong argument but they acknowledge their findings have caused some debate in the scientific community, given other studies have pointed to modern humans originating in East Africa.
"What we are seeing for living modern humans - not just homo sapiens, we're only talking about homo sapiens sapiens, people that live today - we believe we've got extremely strong evidence but, of course, it's a hypothesis because we're not living there now."
Report by Rachel Cary
