The Out of Africa migration explains which major event in human prehistory?

• A. The migration of Homo sapiens out of Africa to populate other continents.
• B. The invention of agriculture in Mesopotamia.
• C. The spread of writing to Europe.
• D. The use of iron tools in Europe.

Answer: (A)

The central idea here is how modern humans first spread beyond Africa and came to inhabit other parts of the world. The Out of Africa model says that Homo sapiens evolved in Africa and then migrated outward, eventually crossing into Asia, Europe, Oceania, and the Americas. This movement is the starting point for the global distribution of humans and helps explain why non-African populations share ancestry with Africans and show patterns of genetic variation shaped by this founding dispersal. As these humans moved into new environments, they sometimes interbred with local archaic groups like Neanderthals or Denisovans, leaving traces in our DNA.

The other options describe later developments in human history. Agriculture began later in various regions, mainly initiating the Neolithic revolution, not the initial spread of people. Writing appeared much later in different cultures, and iron tools came in the Iron Age, long after humans left Africa.