New evidence on how and when first humans migrated into the Pacific
Discovery on Waigeo island revealed ancient human settlement and Pacific migration routes.
Humans, like all living beings, have always faced the challenge of survival, leading them to migrate to nearly every corner of the globe over time. Accurately mapping these ancient migrations has long been a difficult task for researchers, particularly for those studying the history of human dispersals across the Pacific Ocean.
Now, a new discovery on Waigeo Island, in the Raja Ampat archipelago of West Papua, has upended the standard image of prehistoric migrations in the region.
During an excavation at Mololo Cave, whose name means "the place where currents converge," a team of archaeologists unearthed not only the oldest evidence of human settlement in the Pacific Islands but also in any location outside Africa.
The excavation revealed several layers of human occupation associated with stone artifacts, animal bones, shells, and charcoal—all physical remnants left behind by the ancient humans who lived in the cave.
Archaeological finds are rare in the deeper levels but radiocarbon dating has shown that humans lived in Mololo at least 55,000 years ago.
Of particular interest is a tiny artifact, just a couple of centimeters wide, made from tree resin. Its function is not entirely sure but, based on modern practices, it might probably have been used as a fuel source. It is a clearly man-made tool, deliberately crafted in several stages and represents the development of complex and culturally specific skills by the communities living in the rainforests of West Papua.
The use of complex plant processing techniques indicates that in the Pacific area 55,000 years ago lived humans capable of devising creative solutions for living on small tropical islands.
The exact moment and way our ancestors moved from Asia across the Pacific is a hotly debated issue within the archaeological community. It has significant implications for how quickly our species dispersed from Africa to Asia and Oceania, affecting how prehistoric populations might have interacted with other species, both animal and human.
In general, researchers are divided into two camps: some believe that humans entered the Pacific via a southern route, passing through Australia, others via a northern route, traveling to Western Papua.
Until now, the evidence for both routes has been circumstantial, but with this excavation and particularly the analysis of the resin artifact, it seems that ‘the first direct, radiocarbon evidence that humans moved along the northern route into the Pacific region before 50,000 years ago’ has been found.
So, Waigeo Island was not only home to ancient complex societies, populated by skilled navigators and artisans well-adapted to life in the rainforest—it was also their gateway to the entire Pacific.
'We know from other archaeological sites [ ] that once they reached the Pacific region, humans continued to venture as far as the Highlands of New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, and the Solomon Islands by 30,000 years ago,' the authors explain.
'Their descendants later navigated to Hawaii, Rapa Nui, and Aotearoa.'
