Have we been around since before the last ice age? Why did the cradle of civilization begin in the closest arable region to Europe? There was only hot desert below the Levant. So that makes the theory that humans came out of Africa highly unlikely. The last ice age lasted from 100,000 B.C. to 10,000 B.C. Also, people in the Levant made bread - they didn't eat rice. Did the ice age simply force people to migrate to the Levant and then back to Europe when the ice receded?