M Siddall [Nature,volume 423,pages 853-857] estimated from two cores that the level of the Red Sea at Bab el Mandab rose by nearly 140m between 128 and 121Ka.If the age determinations are reasonably accurate,Homo sapiens initially occupied caves in Isreal,when sea level was near it's maximum level.
Middle Stone Age artifacts were found on an emergent reef terrace on the Red Sea Coast of Eritrea in NE Africa.The implements have been dated by U-Th mass spectrometry to circa 125Ka,which is about 5ka before the Homo sapiens occupied Isreal.
Does anyone have information about the course of the Nile River at that time?Prior to the LGM,a tribuary [?] is reputed to have debouched material into the Red Sea.Whether modern humans accessed Israel from north Africa or by a route west of the Red Sea may have been determined by the direction of the main flow of the Nile River at that time[??].
At the time of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (about 5.5Mya?) the Nile carved itself a deep canyon to the Mediterranean. When the Med filled up again, it filled the canyon as far as Aswan (where evidence was found when the Aswan Dam was being constructed).
Also, to the East, the Red Sea Hills have been there for quite some time. I would think it unlikely that any branch of the Nile much south of the Delta could suddenly branch off into the Red Sea.
However, up by the Delta, it might have been very different. Ancient Egyptians (Pharaoh Necho ?) were said to have connected the Nile to the Gulf of Suez through very flat land.
I don't see why, during a similar interglacial, with high sea levels, to ours, and after a high delta build-up, the Nile shouldn't have carved itself a dribble through to the Gulf of Suez along much the same route.
At the same time, the Med coast of Sinai (Bahr al Yam, El Arish, etc) might have been much wetter, and a lot more welcoming, as might central parts of Sinai.
That might have led your early HSS up the coast a bit further North.
regards
Richard
