Aug 7, 2025 05:47 PM
(This post was last modified: Aug 7, 2025 05:53 PM by C C.)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2025.../105618842
EXCERPTS: Ancient humans lived on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi at least a million years ago — 800,000 years earlier than previously known — according to stone tools found under a corn field. The artefacts, which were unveiled in the journal Nature, may even be up to 1.48 million years old.
But exactly which ancient human species left the tools, or even how they managed to get there in the first place, is a mystery. Griffith University archaeologist and study co-author Adam Brumm said the previous oldest evidence of humans in Sulawesi was 194,000-year-old stone tools, also found by his team.
"We'd always suspected that we would eventually find much older evidence for a human presence on the island," Professor Brumm said. "And now we finally have."
[...] While this new discovery moves Sulawesi's human habitation timeline way back, neighbouring islands have also yielded signs of human occupation from a similar period...
[...] One thing is certain: the find pre-dates the emergence of our own species, Homo sapiens, by at least 700,000 years. This means the people who left these tools behind weren't modern humans.
Without fossilised remains, such as bones and teeth, Professor Brumm said it was difficult to tell what sort of early human made the million-year-old Sulawesi tools.
"We suspect that these Homo erectus were somehow able to get across from the edge of mainland Asia, across the very significant water gap, to Sulawesi." (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: Ancient humans lived on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi at least a million years ago — 800,000 years earlier than previously known — according to stone tools found under a corn field. The artefacts, which were unveiled in the journal Nature, may even be up to 1.48 million years old.
But exactly which ancient human species left the tools, or even how they managed to get there in the first place, is a mystery. Griffith University archaeologist and study co-author Adam Brumm said the previous oldest evidence of humans in Sulawesi was 194,000-year-old stone tools, also found by his team.
"We'd always suspected that we would eventually find much older evidence for a human presence on the island," Professor Brumm said. "And now we finally have."
[...] While this new discovery moves Sulawesi's human habitation timeline way back, neighbouring islands have also yielded signs of human occupation from a similar period...
[...] One thing is certain: the find pre-dates the emergence of our own species, Homo sapiens, by at least 700,000 years. This means the people who left these tools behind weren't modern humans.
Without fossilised remains, such as bones and teeth, Professor Brumm said it was difficult to tell what sort of early human made the million-year-old Sulawesi tools.
"We suspect that these Homo erectus were somehow able to get across from the edge of mainland Asia, across the very significant water gap, to Sulawesi." (MORE - missing details)