In 1998 a cranium of a hominid, an intermediate between a Homo erectus and an archaic Homo sapiens was found in Buya, Eritrea by American scientists dated to over 1 million years old (the oldest of its kind), providing a link between hominids and the earliest humans. It is also believed that Eritrea was on the route out of Africa that was used by early man to colonize the rest of the Old World...more from wikipedia