Ancient plant artefact reveals humanity's epic journey to Australia [View all]

We know that modern humans took one of two routes to first reach Australia, and now an ancient chunk of plant resin has tipped the evidence towards the northern option

By Michael Marshall
13 August 2024



Excavations at Mololo cave on the island of Waigeo, where ancient plant resin was found

Tristan Russell (The Raja Ampat Archaeological Project)


A tiny chunk of plant resin shows humans were living on an island in eastern Indonesia at least 55,000 years ago – revealing the likely route that modern humans took when migrating to Australia.

We know that modern humans journeyed to Australia by heading south-east from mainland Asia, travelling through what is now Indonesia and many other islands of South-East Asia. The exact timing is contested, says Dylan Gaffney at the University of Oxford. Modern genetic evidence suggests humans arrived less than 50,000 years ago, but archaeological evidence points to an earlier arrival, “perhaps 65,000 or even 80,000 years ago”, he says.

What is more, the exact route they took is also contested because the geography of the region at the time was different. Earth was in a cold glacial period, so more water was locked up in ice sheets and sea levels were lower, meaning some landmasses that are now islands were connected to continents. In the western part of this region, Borneo, Sumatra and Java were all part of mainland Asia – while in the eastern part, New Guinea was joined to Australia.

This means there were two possible routes humans could have taken to reach Australia. The northern route heads directly east from Borneo to Sulawesi and on to New Guinea, then south into Australia. The southern route goes via Java, passing through Bali and Timor to northern Australia.



More:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2443538-ancient-plant-artefact-reveals-humanitys-epic-journey-to-australia/