7000 Year Old Bones Of A Teenage Hunter-Gatherer Shed Light On Undiscovered Human Lineage

The bones of a teenage hunter-gatherer who died on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi over 7000 years ago reveals an ancient human DNA lineage never found anywhere in the world. 

Study co-author Adam Brumm, Archeological Professor at Griffith University's Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution revealed:

"We have discovered the first ancient human DNA in the island region between Asia and Australia, known as "Wallacea", providing new insight into the genetic diversity and population history of early modern humans in this little-understood part of the world," he said.

A study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday reveals these distinct first modern humans used the Wallacea Islands and other Indonesian Islands like Sulawesi, Lombok and Flores to cross from Eurasia to the Australian continent over 50,000 years ago. However, the exact routes are not known. 

"They must have done so using relatively sophisticated watercraft of some kind, as there were no land bridges between the islands, even during the glacial peaks of the last ice age, when global sea levels were up to 140m lower than they are today," said Brumm.

Researchers made the exciting discovery of 17 to 18 year old female’s skeleton in a Sulawesi cave back in 2015 where she was buried 7200 years ago. She was of the Toalean culture, a pocket of people known only to Sulawesi’s southwestern peninsula. The cave is part of an archaeological site known as “Leang Panninge”.

Brumm said the “Toaleans” as archaeologists call them, are an interesting culture of prehistoric hunter-gatherers that frequented the forested plains and South Sulawesi mountains from around 8000 years ago to around the fifth century AD. 

The group made distinctive stone tools, including finely cut arrowheads called “Maros points” never seen anywhere else on the island or in wider Indonesia. 

This young female is the most complete and well-preserved skeleton associated with the Toalean culture. Lead study author Selina Carlhoff retrieved DNA from the wedge-shaped petrous bone at the base of her skull. 

Though there were major challenges in that the tropical climate had degraded the remains, persistence to retrieve the information paid off. 

The woman was a member of the first modern humans to enter Wallacea 50,000 years ago. This was part of the combined ice age landmass of Australia and New Guinea. According to Brumm, the DNA shows that they are the ancestors of present-day Indigenous Australians and Papuans. 

But even more interesting, the girls remains have revealed previously unknown ancient humans. 

She’s connected to a separate and distinctive Asian group who likely arrived after Greater Australia’s colonisation because they are not linked to modern Indigenous Australians and Papuans. 

"It suggests that there might have been a distinct group of modern humans in this region that we really had no idea about up until now, as archaeological sites are so scarce in Wallacea and ancient skeletal remains are rare," said Brumm.

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