Island Hopping to Sahul

Abstract

Abstract The dispersal of Homo sapiens to Sahul required passage through the vast Wallacean archipelago, resulting in the first large-scale modern human maritime migration. This migration likely required social, technological, and economic innovations as modern humans island-hopped east towards Sahul (the combined Pleistocene landmass of Australia, New Guinea, and the Aru Islands). The dispersal pathways through Wallacea are not well documented archaeologically, with theoretical and computational models of dispersal still playing an important role in our understanding of the region. This article reviews the archaeological and fossil evidence for the earliest H. sapiens presence in Wallacea; suggests possible overlap with archaic humans; and summarizes the findings of recent modelling for modern human migrations through Wallacea. The archaeological record of Wallacea attributed to H. sapiens is currently younger than that found in either Sunda (now comprising the western portion of Island Southeast Asia) or Sahul. From this pattern of evidence the authors conclude that the more ancient evidence for H. sapiens remains to be discovered in Wallacea, and they highlight the most promising islands for future research.