New DNA Analysis Shows Aboriginal Australians Are the World's Oldest Society

[wnylib]

4. Two different ancient land masses being referred to here.

I first learned about this a few years back at another website when chatting with an Australian anthropologist. Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, plus smaller islands in that area were all connected in a mass sometimes called Sundaland. This mass was connected to the southeast Asian mainland (Malaysia, etc.)

The other land mass, referred to in the linked Smithsonian article, was Sahul - New Guinea and Australia connected to each other. (No, my memory is not that good. I had to look up their names again.)

The land mass that Australia belonged to was never connected to the other one that extended from mainland SE Asia, but at some periods during glaciation, the distance of water between them was only 90 kilometers. Other times it was greater.

The original theory that I learned from the Australian anthroplogolist was that people traveled by land to the furthest extent of the islands connected to each other and mainland Asia, then eventually made the water trip to the Sahul and spread into what is now Australia before Australia and New Guinea were separated.

Later, another theory was that, since the connections of the islands in the SE Asian land mass fluctuated as glaciation and water levels fluctuated, people might have traveled very short distances over shallow water from one island to another. From those experiences they would have gained rafting or boating skills to go the much further distance to Australia/Sahul.

I questioned calling the trip to Australia "open sea." I learned that it was called that because, even at its narrowest, it was still a great leap in water travel for early humans. They left one land mass for another, without hugging coastlines, to deal with much deeper water and currents they had not encountered before when only hopping a couple miles between islands. It was a technological leap.

The earliest evidence for humans in Australia is over 60,000 years ago, but it consists of mostly tools and no human fossils. The earliest human remains in Australia date to about 43,000 years ago. Older remains in coastal areas were probably lost when sea levels rose.