Drawing on archaeology, anthropology, palaeontology and genetics, Oppenheimer argues that there was only one main exodus of modern humans from Africa, and it took place 80,000 years ago across the narrow straits between present-day Djibouti and Yemen. From there homo sapiens migrated to the then contiguous landmass of south Asia and Indonesia, faced a threat of extinction from the explosion of the Sumatran volcano Toba around 74,000 years ago, before making the leap across to Australia.
Stephen Oppenheimer of University of Oxford is a leading expert in the use of DNA to track migrations. His first book Eden in the East: the Drowned Continent of Southeast Asia challenged the orthodox view of the origins of Polynesians as rice farmers from Taiwan.