The biblical account of the exodus of the Hebrews out of Egypt leads us to assume the escape route ran from the Nile Delta to Sinai, then later into southern Israel. Widespread evidence across Eurasia indicates that Homo erectus moved out of Africa more than a million years BP, possibly as early as two million years ago (Wade 2006, 27). Their remnants indicate dispersal across most of the Eurasian land mass excluding the Arctic, but we have no idea of their route out of Africa and it is doubtful that we ever will. More limited evidence of later Homo sapiens at Kebara Cave in modern Israel provides stronger evidence of migration from northern Egypt, but their presence for a few thousand years was followed by their disappearance and probably extinction (Wells 2006, 116–17). Later, genetic evidence indicates that a successful group of migrants followed what has been called the Southern Dispersal Route across the south end of the Red Sea, along the coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and eastward following the South Asian coast to Southeast Asia (Macauley 2005).

Along the way, the mouths of rivers lured some migrants to settle and some undoubtedly turned inland, resulting in penetration of the continent and successive riverine settlements. The Tigris–Euphrates River Valley was the first such riverine route discovered along the coast of the Indian Ocean. It is likely that Homo sapiens began moving inland around 80,000 to 70,000 years ago where they took up a foraging lifestyle. Prehistoric camp locations near the rivers indicate the slow emergence of settled life and agriculture beginning around 12,500 years ago (Maisels 1993). A 10-acre site at Jericho indicates permanent settlement by 9000 BCE (Gates 2003) where a laborintensive 20-foot surrounding wall implies the emergence of a social organization around a powerful chieftain. By 7750 BCE settlements supported by domestication of wild plants and animals had spread southward through Palestine into the Nile Valley. By 3000 BCE permanent settlements had been established throughout the region.

By 1000 BCE, a relatively minor population of nomads had settled in villages they called Canaan and were on the verge of installing a kingship.