History of Somalia The oldest evidence of burial customs in the Horn of Africa comes from cemeteries in Somalia dating back to the 4th millennium BC. The stone implements from the Jalelo site in the north were also characterized in 1909 as important artefacts demonstrating the archaeological universality during the Paleolithic between the East and the West. According to linguists, the first Afro-Asiatic-speaking populations arrived in the region during the ensuing Neolithic period from the family's proposed urheimat ("original homeland") in the Nile Valley, or the Near East. Other scholars propose that the Afro-Asiatic family developed in situ in the Horn, with its
Wildlife of Somalia elephants. The savanna-dwelling golden mole, and the shrub-land and desert-dwelling. The following species of mammals are found exclusively in Somalia: Somalia is currently home to about 727 species of birds, of which eight are endemic, one has been introduced by humans and one is rare or accidental. Fourteen species are globally threatened. The following species of birds are found exclusively in Somalia: Somalia has roughly 235 species of reptiles, of which almost half live in its northern areas. The Nile crocodile is very common in southern Somalia, and is the largest crocodilian found in Africa. Adult males can grow to