Editing Horn of Africa (section)

===Prehistory===
[[File:Dera rock art.jpg|thumb|Deka rock art in Deka Arbaa, [[Southern Region (Eritrea)|Debub]] region of [[Eritrea]]]]
Some of the earliest ''[[Homo sapiens]]'' fossils, the [[Omo remains]] (from ca. 233,000 years ago) and the [[Herto Man|Herto skull]] (from ca. 160,000 ago) have been found in the region, both in Ethiopia.<ref name="Vidal22">{{Cite journal |last1=Vidal |first1=Celine M. |last2=Lane |first2=Christine S. |author-link2=Christine Lane |last3=Asfawrossen |first3=Asrat |display-authors=etal |date=Jan 2022 |title=Age of the oldest known Homo sapiens from eastern Africa |journal=Nature |volume=601 |issue=7894 |pages=579–583 |bibcode=2022Natur.601..579V |doi=10.1038/s41586-021-04275-8 |pmc=8791829 |pmid=35022610}}</ref>

The findings of the Earliest Stone Tipped Projectiles from the [[Great Rift Valley, Ethiopia|Ethiopian Rift]] dated to more than 279,000 years ago "in combination with the existing archaeological, fossil and genetic evidence, isolate East Africa as a source of modern cultures and biology."<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Sahle|first1=Yonatan|last2=Hutchings|first2=W. Karl|last3=Braun|first3=David R.|last4=Sealy|first4=Judith C.|last5=Morgan|first5=Leah E.|last6=Negash|first6=Agazi|last7=Atnafu|first7=Balemwal|date=13 November 2013|title=Earliest Stone-Tipped Projectiles from the Ethiopian Rift Date to >279,000 Years Ago|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=8|issue=11|pages=e78092|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0078092|issn=1932-6203|pmc=3827237|pmid=24236011|bibcode=2013PLoSO...878092S|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Cavalazzi|first1=B.|last2=Barbieri|first2=R.|last3=Gómez|first3=F.|last4=Capaccioni|first4=B.|last5=Olsson-Francis|first5=K.|last6=Pondrelli|first6=M.|last7=Rossi|first7=A.P.|last8=Hickman-Lewis|first8=K.|last9=Agangi|first9=A.|last10=Gasparotto|first10=G.|last11=Glamoclija|first11=M.|date=1 April 2019|title=The Dallol Geothermal Area, Northern Afar (Ethiopia)—An Exceptional Planetary Field Analog on Earth|journal=Astrobiology|volume=19|issue=4|pages=553–578|doi=10.1089/ast.2018.1926|issn=1531-1074|pmc=6459281|pmid=30653331|bibcode=2019AsBio..19..553C}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xwbxDQAAQBAJ&q=Cradle+of+Humankind|title=The Cradle of Humanity: How the changing landscape of Africa made us so smart|last=Maslin|first=Mark|date=18 January 2017|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-100971-6|language=en|access-date=18 October 2020|archive-date=22 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240522141155/https://books.google.com/books?id=xwbxDQAAQBAJ&q=Cradle+of+Humankind#v=snippet&q=Cradle%20of%20Humankind&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to the [[Southern Dispersal]] scenario, the Southern route of the Out of Africa migration occurred in the Horn of Africa through the [[Bab el Mandeb]]. Today at the Bab-el-Mandeb straits, the Red Sea is about {{convert|12|mi|km|abbr=off}} wide, but 50,000 years ago it was much narrower and sea levels were 70 meters lower. Though the straits were never completely closed, there may have been islands in between which could be reached using simple rafts. Shell [[midden]]s 125,000 years old have been found in Eritrea,<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 |date=May 2000 |pmid=10811218 |doi=10.1038/35011048 |bibcode=2000Natur.405...65W |s2cid=4417823 }}</ref> indicating the diet of early humans included seafood obtained by [[beachcombing]].

Ethiopian and Eritrean [[agriculture]] established the earliest known use of the seed grass [[teff]] (''Poa abyssinica'') between 4000 and 1000 BCE.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=16-ejysyRCgC |title=The Agricultural Systems of the World |author=David B. Grigg |page=66 |date=1974 |publisher=C.U.P. |access-date=25 July 2013 |isbn=9780521098434 |archive-date=22 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240522141156/https://books.google.com/books?id=16-ejysyRCgC |url-status=live }}</ref> Teff is used to make the flatbread [[injera]]/taita. [[Coffee]] also originated in Ethiopia and has since spread to become a worldwide beverage.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WKj__YqTU4AC|title=Plant Genetic Resources of Ethiopia|first1=J. M. M.|last1=Engels|first2=J. G.|last2=Hawkes|first3=M.|last3=Worede|date=21 March 1991|publisher=Cambridge University Press|via=Google Books|isbn=9780521384568|access-date=18 October 2020|archive-date=22 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240522141246/https://books.google.com/books?id=WKj__YqTU4AC|url-status=live}}</ref>

Historian [[Christopher Ehret]], cited genetic evidence which had identified the Horn of Africa as a source of a genetic marker "[[Haplogroup E-M35|M35]]/[[Haplogroup E-M215|215]]" Y-chromosome lineage for a significant population component which moved north from that region into Egypt and the Levant. Ehret argued that this genetic distribution paralleled the spread of the [[Afroasiatic languages|Afrasian language family]] with the movement of people from the Horn of Africa into Egypt and added a new demic component to the existing population of Egypt 17,000 years ago.<ref name="Ancient Africa: A Global History, t">{{cite book |last1=Ehret |first1=Christopher |title=Ancient Africa: A Global History, to 300 CE |date=20 June 2023 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-24410-5 |pages=97, 167 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S5KjEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1 |language=en |access-date=22 December 2023 |archive-date=15 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230715090326/https://books.google.com/books?id=S5KjEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1 |url-status=live }}</ref>