https://www.reuters.com/science/where-did-homo-sapiens-go-after-leaving-africa-new-study-has-an-answer-2024-03-25/

Our species emerged in Africa more than 300,000
years ago, with a migration out of the continent
60,000 to 70,000 years ago heralding the start
of the global spread of Homo sapiens. But where
did these pioneers go after leaving Africa?

After years of debate, a new study offers an
answer. These bands of hunter-gatherers appear
to have lingered for thousands of years as a
homogeneous population in a geographic hub
that spanned Iran, southeast Iraq and
northeast Saudi Arabia before going on to
settle all of Asia and Europe starting
roughly 45,000 years ago, scientists said
on Monday.

Their findings were based on genomic datasets
drawn from ancient DNA and modern gene pools,
combined with paleoecological evidence that
showed that this region would have
represented an ideal habitat. The researchers
called this region, part of what is called
the Persian Plateau, a "hub" for these
people - who numbered perhaps only in the
thousands - before they continued onward
millennia later to more distant locales.
...


https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-46161-7
The Persian plateau served as hub for
Homo sapiens after the main out of Africa
dispersal


Abstract
A combination of evidence, based on genetic,
fossil and archaeological findings, indicates
that Homo sapiens spread out of Africa
between ~70-60 thousand years ago (kya).
However, it appears that once outside of
Africa, human populations did not expand
across all of Eurasia until ~45 kya. The
geographic whereabouts of these early
settlers in the timeframe between ~70-60
to 45 kya has been difficult to reconcile.
Here we combine genetic evidence and
palaeoecological models to infer the
geographic location that acted as the Hub
for our species during the early phases of
colonisation of Eurasia. Leveraging on
available genomic evidence we show that
populations from the Persian Plateau carry
an ancestry component that closely matches
the population that settled the Hub outside
Africa. With the paleoclimatic data
available to date, we built ecological
models showing that the Persian Plateau was
suitable for human occupation and that it
could sustain a larger population compared
to other West Asian regions, strengthening
this claim.


...

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