Scientists have discovered possible artefacts of the oldest known Wallacean hominids on Sulawesi island in Indonesia, indicating human presence in the region 1.5 million years ago.
- Scientists have discovered possible artefacts of the oldest known Wallacean hominids on Sulawesi island in Indonesia, indicating human presence in the region 1.5 million years ago.
The archaeological team, comprising researchers from Australia and Indonesia, unearthed a collection of small, chipped stone tools in Soppeng, South Sulawesi. These tools, believed to have been used for cutting small animals and carving rocks, were dated using radioactive tracing techniques, revealing their age to be approximately 1.48 million years.
This groundbreaking finding challenges previous assumptions about early human migrations. Prior to this discovery, it was widely accepted that early humans, specifically Homo Erectus, only reached Indonesia’s Flores island and the Philippines’ Luzon island around 1.02 million years ago. This was based on the belief that such early humans lacked the capability for long-distance sea travel.
Adam Brumm, the lead archaeologist from Griffith University in Queensland, commented on the significance of the findings: “These were artefacts made by ancient humans who lived on the earth long before the evolution of our species, Homo Sapiens.” He further explained the implications of the discovery, stating, “We think Homo Erectus somehow got from the Asian mainland across a significant ocean gap to this island, Sulawesi, at least 1 million years ago.”
The region known as Wallacea consists of several islands, including Sulawesi, Lombok, Flores, Timor, and Sumbawa, located between Borneo and Java and Australia and New Guinea. It is named after the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who extensively studied the area’s unique fauna and flora.
This revelation not only enriches our understanding of human history in the Wallacea region but may also reshape theories regarding the migration patterns of early hominids across the islands of Southeast Asia.
