Earliest hominin occupation of Sulawesi, Indonesia

Gerrit D. van den Bergh, University of WollongongFollow
Bo Li, University of WollongongFollow
Adam R. Brumm, University of WollongongFollow
Rainer Grün, Griffith UniversityFollow
Dida Yurnaldi, University of WollongongFollow
Mark W. Moore, University of New EnglandFollow
Iwan Kurniawan, Geology Museum, Indonesia
Ruly Setiawan, University of WollongongFollow
Fachroel Aziz, Geological Survey Institute, Indonesia
Richard G. Roberts, University of WollongongFollow
- Suyono, Geology Museum, IndonesiaFollow
Michael Storey, Roskilde University, University of CopenhagenFollow
Erick Setiabudi, Geology Museum, Indonesia
Michael J. Morwood, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

105134

Publication Details

van den Bergh, G. D., Li, B., Brumm, A., Gruen, R., Yurnaldi, D., Moore, M. W., Kurniawan, I., Setiawan, R., Aziz, F., Roberts, R. G., Suyono, , Storey, M., Setiabudi, E. & Morwood, M. J. (2016). Earliest hominin occupation of Sulawesi, Indonesia. Nature, 529 (7585), 208-211.

Abstract

Sulawesi is the largest and oldest island within Wallacea, a vast zone of oceanic islands separating continental Asia from the Pleistocene landmass of Australia and Papua (Sahul). By one million years ago an unknown hominin lineage had colonized Flores immediately to the south1, and by about 50 thousand years ago, modern humans (Homo sapiens) had crossed to Sahul2, 3. On the basis of position, oceanic currents and biogeographical context, Sulawesi probably played a pivotal part in these dispersals4. Uranium-series dating of speleothem deposits associated with rock art in the limestone karst region of Maros in southwest Sulawesi has revealed that humans were living on the island at least 40 thousand years ago (ref. 5). Here we report new excavations at Talepu in the Walanae Basin northeast of Maros, where in situ stone artefacts associated with fossil remains of megafauna (Bubalus sp., Stegodon and Celebochoerus) have been recovered from stratified deposits that accumulated from before 200 thousand years ago until about 100 thousand years ago. Our findings suggest that Sulawesi, like Flores, was host to a long-established population of archaic hominins, the ancestral origins and taxonomic status of which remain elusive.