A University of Wollongong archaeologist is among a group of scientists who believe they’ve discovered the identity of one of the first group of human beings to leave Africa.Professor Richard Roberts, of the uni’s Centre for Archaeological Science, is the only Australian in the team of eight, who have found more than 100 sites in the Middle Eastern nation of Oman which it says are ‘‘a trail of stone breadcrumbs’’ left by early humans.It is the first time sites such as these have been found outside Africa.Team leader Dr Jeffrey Rose from the University of Birmingham said the clues were a rewarding end to a decade-long search.‘‘After a decade of searching in southern Arabia for some clue that might help us understand early human expansion, at long last we’ve found the smoking gun of their exit from Africa,’’ he said.‘‘What makes this so exciting is that the answer is a scenario almost never considered.’’The scientists used a technique known as Optically Stimulated Luminescence to date one of the sites.They worked out that toolmakers had entered the Arabian Peninsula from Africa at least 106,000 years ago, tens of thousands of years earlier than previously thought.Also surprising was that many of the sites were found inland.This has challenged the previous belief that early humans moved through southern Arabia mainly along the coast.The findings have been published in the journal PLoS One.