archaeologist in West Papua find ancient tree rosin that they say is the oldest grounds of human arrival in the Pacific . The team ’s research — publishedearlier this calendar month in Antiquity — describes hardened tree diagram resin from Mololo Cave on Waigeo Island , part of the Raja Ampat archipelago . Excavations in the cave revealed stone artefact , animal bones , charcoal , and tree resin , the last of which was all-important for time the human presence in the area .
“ Some osseous tissue in the bank deposit are in all probability raw , including minuscule animals like minor rodents and microbats , ” said Dylan Gaffney , an archaeologist at the University of Oxford and the paper ’s hint author , in aPhys release . “ The other large animals like sublunar wench , marsupials and megabats are more likely to ensue from human depredation . ”
The team also found the remains of nautical animals — the teeth of carnivorous fish and sea urchins — in the cave , indicating the ancient human occupants took them from the coast ( 9.32 miles/15 kilometers aside ) and processed them in the cave .
A person demonstrates lighting a fire with tree resin.Photo: Dylan Gaffney
The tree diagram rosin pieces the research worker find did not mould naturally . accord to the squad , who name their workin an clause for The Conversation , the resin was made by humans who cut barque from a tree and then snapped the hardened resin into shape . Though they are not sure how the rosin was used , they speculate that it may have been a fuel source for fires . carbon 14 dating of the layers in which the resin were found indicate that humans were in the cave as early as 55,000 years ago .
just when and how humanity migrated across the Pacific islands remains a thing of debate . In the ancient past , other hominins likeHomo erectusand the diminutiveHomo floresiensismade their way across the island ( some researcher believethatH. floresiensisis merely a miniaturized version ofH. erectus ) . Though it ’s very potential that the Mololo cave was occupy byHomo sapiens , it ’s possible that the assemblage was made by man more closely colligate to Denisovans , amysterious group of nonextant hominins .
The ‘ hobbit ’ of Flores island hold up extinct about 50,000 age ago , and this inquiry suggests early modern human beings belike arrived on Waigeo around the same time , when the distance between Waitanta ( the paleoisland that is now the distinct islands of Waigeo and Batanta ) and the paleocontinent Sahul was just 1.55 Roman mile ( 2.5 km ) at its narrow-minded .
“ It is likely that Waitanta was first haunt by those living further Rebecca West in Wallacea , but it remains possible that humans initially get into Sahul via Australia and apace moved Second Earl of Guilford - west , arrive at Waitanta from what is today the Bird ’s Head Peninsula of New Guinea , ” the study author publish .
The team also simulated the potential routes ancient human being could have taken into New Guinea by way of the Raja Ampat archipelago . Now , they plan to further inquire sites in the archipelago that could elucidate the precise timing of human arrivals — and potentially the precise group of human who were there .
Human migration
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