Archaeological research has established that Syria played a central role in prehistoric cultural development in southwest Asia. Its location at the junction of routes from Africa, Europe, and Asia made it a focus of cultural innovation and spread. Syria was first inhabited about a million years ago by early humans who came from Africa. There was considerable human activity in Syria during the Middle Palaeolithic (ca. 80,000-35,000 years ago), and occupation was continuous thereafter. Syria was an important center for the development of agriculture 10,000 years ago. It witnessed the domestication of several species of plants and animals and the beginning of sedentary village life. The heartland of the succeeding Halaf culture was in north Syria. Its development marked the transition to more complex cultural patterns and, ultimately, to the emergence of urban civilization after 3000 B. C.