For many years now, scientists have struggled to find out where humanity originated from, and many regions around the world were the candidates. Now, scientists believe that a specific area in Africa was the ‘Garden of Eden,’ as they called it.
More specifically, the cradle of humankind resided in Botswana, and the scientists revealed after they performed a series of ancient DNA studies in the region. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the respective area was abundant in wetlands, with a massive England-sized lake formed by the nowadays Zambezi River.
According to the experts behind the new study, the ‘Garden of Eden’ was just south of the river, where, for about 70,000 years, human civilization has flourished. The area was filled with trees, plants, rivers, providing a peaceful home for first humans. When climate change affected the region, humans had to relocate and started to populate the rest of the Earth.
‘Garden of Eden’ Found In Africa By Scientists
“It has been clear for some time anatomically modern humans appeared in Africa roughly 200,000 years ago. What has been long debated is the exact location of this emergence and subsequent dispersal of our earliest ancestors. This (study) enabled us to pinpoint the ancestral homeland of all humans. It is the first time the exact location has been identified,” said Vanessa Hayes from Sydney University.
The study launched in the journal Nature, and it centered on the first-known lineage of human ancestors. The scientists conducted studies on ancient DNA found in Botswana to conclude that there of the so-called ‘Garden of Eden.’
“A third population remained in the homeland until today. Mitochondrial DNA acts as a time capsule of our ancestral mothers, accumulating changes slowly over generations,” Professor Hayes added. The scientist concluded that climate change forced the first humans to leave the region and move in other areas of the planet.