Archaeologists have discovered a 42,000-year-old human skull in a cave in West Papua, Indonesia, that provides new clues about how and when humans first moved into the Pacific.
The skull, which belonged to a young woman, is the oldest known human fossil from the region, and it suggests that humans may have reached Wallacea, the group of islands between Asia and Australia, much earlier than previously thought.
The discovery also provides new evidence for the theory that humans may have used Wallacea as a stepping stone to reach Australia, which was first settled around 50,000 years ago.
The skull was found in the Liang Bua cave on the island of Flores, which is part of Wallacea. The cave is also home to the remains of the "Flores Man," a small, human-like creature that lived on Flores until around 12,000 years ago.
The discovery of the skull suggests that humans may have been living on Flores for much longer than previously thought, and that they may have coexisted with the Flores Man.
The findings are published in the journal Nature.
"This is a very important find," said lead author Gerrit van den Bergh, a researcher at the University of Wollongong in Australia. "It provides new evidence for the theory that humans may have used Wallacea as a stepping stone to reach Australia."
The skull was found in a layer of sediment that also contained stone tools and animal bones. The researchers believe that the skull and the artifacts were deposited in the cave by a mudflow or a landslide.
The skull is relatively complete, and it shows that the young woman had a small brain, a broad face, and a robust jaw. The researchers believe that she was probably a member of an early group of humans that migrated from Asia to Wallacea.
"The discovery of this skull is a major breakthrough in our understanding of human evolution in the Pacific," said co-author Chris Stringer, a researcher at the Natural History Museum in London. "It provides new evidence for the theory that humans may have reached Australia much earlier than previously thought."
