some stuff to keep in mind...
durring the ice age we were not alone and even beyond.in indonesia they have found evedince of a subspieces related to homo erectus that may have only died out a thoasand years ago ,there are danish text dateing from the 1600s describing these short people.not only that but it is possible that there was more than one sub spieces in the area.
in S.africa they have found fossils of a juvinial male possibly related to erectus as well that stood 6ft. tall only 10000 years old.
then you add neadratall in europe ,middle east and Nafrica, java man in asia there are a lot of subspieces here to deal with in this age and they didnt stay in africa actually the evedince points to asia or asie minor as the true place of sapiens birth.you also have cromag in the mix,there is a 12th century text by a traveler from the middle east that reported on a tribe of hairy men, not quite men living in northern europe.
to look at what was the quantim leap ,there is a lot of speculation that sapian has known how to grow crops for a lot longer than we had thought,inthe high lands of papa new guinne they have been growing crops for a very long time and have found stone tools that pre date egypts empire,the clovis of the americas new how to grow crops so the assumption here is that when sapiens began to migrate they alreadt had this knoledge down.the true spark was comming across a grain that could supply man and pack animal with enough food to get them through the hard times so when it was plentifull they could concentrate on other things like applieing abstract ideas on the world aroand them.this didnt happen untill man came across wheat in the middle east.