The island of Timor, a stopover in the migration of the first humans in Australia?

It is estimated that the first human settlers in Australia arrived there between 50,000 and 65,000 years ago. But there is quite a bit of mystery surrounding what route they took. A new study now provides a clue in this regard.

The study is the work of an international team including, among others, Sue O’Connor and Shimona Kealy, both from the Australian National University (ANU), and Ceri Shipton, from the ANU and University College London (UCL) in the United Kingdom.

The discovery of thousands of stone objects and animal bones in a deep cave on the island of Timor has led archaeologists to rethink the route that Australia’s first humans took to get there.

The authors of the new study dated and analyzed artifacts and sediments from the Laili rock shelter, in north-central East Timor, northern Australia, to pinpoint when the arrival of settlers occurred.

They detected a human “arrival signature” from about 44,000 years ago, suggesting there were no humans on the island before that time. Unlike other archaeological sites in the region, the Laili rock shelter preserves deep sediments dated between 59,000 and 54,000 years ago that showed no signs of human occupation.

The island of Timor has long been considered a key stopover for the first human migration between Southeast Asia and Australia and New Guinea. But new findings call this theory into question.

Sue O’Connor (left) and Shimona Kealy. (Photo: Jamie Kidston/ANU)

The absence of humans on the island of Timor 50,000 years ago is significant, as it indicates that these first humans arrived on the island later than previously believed.

This provides more evidence in favor of the alternative theory that the first human settlers of Australia made the journey there using the island of New Guinea as a stopover, instead of the island of Timor as many experts have been defending.

The study is titled “Abrupt onset of intensive human occupation 44,000 years ago on the threshold of Sahul.” And it has been published in the academic journal Nature Communications. (Fountain: NCYT by Amazings)