![\"\"](\"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/artemiada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/papua0212242.jpg\")
\nA wood resin artifact found in Mololo Cave has been dated to between 55,000 and 50,000 years ago. A diagram shows how it might have been made and used. Dylan Gaffney, CC BY-SA<\/em><\/p>\n
The researchers focused their excavations on Mololo Cave, a colossal limestone chamber surrounded by rainforest. It extends 100 metres deep and is home to colonies of bats, monitor lizards and the occasional snake. In the local Ambel language, Mololo means a place where currents meet, and was named for the turbulent waters and large whirlpools in the nearby straits.<\/p>\n\n
During the excavations, several layers of traces of human presence were discovered, associated with stone artifacts, animal bones, shells and charcoal – all material remains discarded by the ancient people who lived in the cave.<\/p>\n
Such archaeological finds have been rare in the deepest layers, but radiocarbon dating at Oxford University and the University of Waikato has shown that people lived at Mololo at least 55,000 years ago.<\/p>\n
The key find of the excavation was a tree resin artefact that was made at this time. It is the earliest example of resin use by humans outside Africa and points to the sophisticated skills that humans developed for living in the rainforest.<\/p>\n
Scanning electron microscopic analysis showed that the artifact was made in several stages. First, the bark of the resin-producing tree was cut away, allowing the resin to flow down the trunk and harden. The hardened resin was then shaped.<\/p>\n The function of the artifact is unknown, but it may have been used as a fuel source for fires inside the cave. Similar resin was collected in the 20th century around West Papua and used for fires before the advent of gas and electric lighting.<\/p>\n An examination of animal bones from Mololo shows that people hunted land birds, marsupials and possibly megabats. Although Waigeo Island was home to small animals that were difficult to catch, people adapted to exploiting the resources of the rainforest along with the coastal foods that the islands readily offered. This is an important example of human adaptation and flexibility in a challenging environment.<\/p>\n The Mololo excavations are helping to pinpoint the exact time when humans moved into the Pacific Ocean, a time that has been hotly debated because it has important implications for how quickly our species spread from Africa to Asia and Oceania.<\/p>\n\n It also has implications for whether humans drove oceanic megafauna such as giant kangaroos (Protemnodon) and giant wombats (Diprotodontids) to extinction, and how they interacted with other hominin species such as the “hobbit” (Homo floresiensis) that lived on the islands of Indonesia about 50,000 years ago.<\/p>\n Archaeologists have proposed two hypothetical sea corridors leading to the Pacific Ocean: a southern route to Australia and a northern route to West Papua.<\/p>\n Excavations in what is now northern Australia suggest that people may have inhabited the ancient continent of Sahul, which connected West Papua with Australia, about 65,000 years ago.<\/p>\n However, the Timor finds show that humans only moved along the southern route 44,000 years ago. This work supports the idea that the earliest seafarers crossed the sea along the northern route to West Papua and then moved on to Australia.<\/p>\n Despite all the research, we still know very little about the deep human past in West Papua. Research has been limited primarily by the political and social crisis in the region.<\/p>\n Importantly, the research shows that early West Papuans were skilled, highly mobile and able to come up with creative solutions to life on small tropical islands. The project\u2019s ongoing excavations aim to provide further information on how people adapted to climate and environmental changes in the region.<\/p>\n Other archaeological sites in the independent state of Papua New Guinea indicate that after humans arrived in the Pacific, they continued to move as far as the New Guinea Highlands, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands by about 30,000 years ago.<\/p>\n It was only about 3,000 years ago that seafarers went beyond the Solomon Islands and settled the smaller islands of Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. Their descendants later sailed to Hawaii, Rapa Nui and Aotearoa.<\/p>\n Archaeological mapping of West Papua is vital because it helps us understand where the ancestors of the wider Pacific people came from and how they adapted to life in this new and unfamiliar sea of \u200b\u200bislands.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In humanity\u2019s distant past, highly skilled seafarers made daring voyages from Asia to the Pacific islands. It was a global migration that shaped the spread of our species, Homo sapiens, across the planet. These seafarers became the ancestors of the people who live in this region today, from West Papua to Aotearoa (New Zealand). However, archaeologists are still unclear about the exact timing, location and nature of these seaborne migrations. The study found that people lived near…<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/artemiada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/papua0212241.jpg\")
\nA modern example of using tree resin from the Raja Ampat Islands to start a fire. Dylan Gaffney, CC BY-SA<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/artemiada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/papua0212243.jpg\")
\nArchaeologists Daud Tanudirjo and Moses Dailom excavate the Mololo Cave.: Tristan Russell, CC BY-SA<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/artemiada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/papua021224.jpg\")
\nTwo possible sea routes from Asia to the Pacific: a northern route along the equator to Raja Ampat and a southern route via Timor to Australia. Dylan Gaffney, CC BY-SA<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/planeta21vek.ru\/artemiada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/papua0212244.jpg\")
\nHand stencils of unknown age from the Raja Ampat Islands. Research from these islands sheds light on early human history. Tristan Russell, CC BY-SA<\/em><\/p>\n