Editing History of Eritrea (section)

==Prehistory==
At Buya in Eritrea, one of the oldest [[hominid]]s representing a possible link between ''[[Homo erectus]]'' and an archaic ''[[Human|Homo sapiens]]'' was discovered by Eritrean and Italian scientists. Dated to over 1 million years old, it is the oldest skeletal find of its kind and provides a link between hominids and the earliest [[anatomically modern humans]].<ref>{{Cite book|isbn=0-07-913665-6|title=[[McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology]]|edition=9th|publisher=The McGraw Hill Companies Inc.|year=2002}}</ref> It is believed that the section of the [[Danakil Depression]] in Eritrea was also a major player in terms of human evolution, and may contain other traces of evolution from ''Homo erectus'' hominids to anatomically modern humans.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://exn.ca/hominids/pleistocenepark.cfm|title=Pleistocene Park|access-date=2006-10-02|date=1999-09-08|archive-date=1999-10-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991013050335/http://exn.ca/hominids/pleistocenepark.cfm|url-status=dead}}</ref>
{{Contains special characters|Ethiopic|compact=yes}}
[[File:Kohaito, grotta di adi alauti con pitture rupestri databili al 2500 ac ca. 14 bestiame.JPG|thumb|Neolithic rock art in a [[Qohaito]] canyon cave]]
[[File:Qohaito, Eritrea (33628113490).jpg|thumb|Pre-Axumite monolithic columns in [[Qohaito]]]]
During the last interglacial period, the [[Red Sea]] coast of Eritrea was occupied by early anatomically modern humans.<ref name="pmid10811218">{{cite journal  |vauthors=Walter RC, Buffler RT, Bruggemann JH, etal |title=Early human occupation of the Red Sea coast of Eritrea during the last interglacial |journal=Nature |volume=405 |issue=6782 |pages=65–9 |year=2000|pmid=10811218 |doi=10.1038/35011048 |bibcode=2000Natur.405...65W|s2cid=4417823 }}</ref> It is believed that the area was on the route out of Africa that some scholars suggest was used by early humans to colonize the rest of the Old World.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Walter|first1=Robert C.|date=2000-05-04|title=Early human occupation of the Red Sea coast of Eritrea during the lastinterglacial|journal=Nature|volume=405|pages=65–69|doi=10.1038/35011048|url=http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v405/n6782/full/405065a0.html|access-date=2006-10-02|pmid=10811218|last2=Buffler|first2=RT|last3=Bruggemann|first3=JH|last4=Guillaume|first4=MM|last5=Berhe|first5=SM|last6=Negassi|first6=B|last7=Libsekal|first7=Y|last8=Cheng|first8=H|last9=Edwards|first9=RL|last10=von Cosel|first10=Rudo|last11=Néraudeau|first11=Didier|last12=Gagnon|first12=Mario|issue=6782|display-authors=8|bibcode=2000Natur.405...65W|s2cid=4417823}}</ref> In 1999, the Eritrean Research Project Team composed of Eritrean, Canadian, American, Dutch and French scientists discovered a [[Paleolithic]] site with stone and obsidian tools dated to over 125,000 years old near the [[Gulf of Zula|Bay of Zula]] south of [[Massawa]], along the Red Sea littoral. The tools are believed to have been used by early humans to harvest marine resources like clams and oysters.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://exn.ca/hominids/outofafrica.cfm|access-date=2006-10-02|title=Out of Africa|date=1999-09-10|archive-date=2006-09-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060928035536/http://www.exn.ca/hominids/outofafrica.cfm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

According to linguists, the first [[Afroasiatic languages|Afroasiatic]]-speaking populations arrived in the region during the ensuing [[Neolithic]] era from the family's proposed [[Afroasiatic Urheimat|urheimat]] ("original homeland") in the [[Nile Valley]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Zarins, Juris |year=1990|title=Early Pastoral Nomadism and the Settlement of Lower Mesopotamia|journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research|volume=280 |issue=280|pages=31–65|jstor=1357309|doi=10.2307/1357309|s2cid=163491760}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |  doi = 10.1126/science.1078208 | last1 = Diamond | first1 = J. | last2 = Bellwood | first2 = P. | title = Farmers and Their Languages: The First Expansions | journal = Science | volume = 300 | issue = 5619 | pages = 597–603 | year = 2003 | pmid = 12714734|bibcode = 2003Sci...300..597D | citeseerx = 10.1.1.1013.4523 | s2cid = 13350469 }}</ref> Other scholars propose that the Afroasiatic family developed in situ in the Horn, with its speakers subsequently dispersing from there.<ref name="Blench143144">{{cite book|last1=Blench|first1=R.|title=Archaeology, Language, and the African Past|date=2006|publisher=Rowman Altamira|isbn=978-0759104662|pages=143–144|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=esFy3Po57A8C}}</ref>