ABSTRACT
The migration of modern humans to western Oceania by 50,000 years ago was part of a global expansion out of Africa, during which these early migrants colonised and adapted to a wide variety of environments and landscapes. Their movement eastwards out of Africa prior to 60,000 years ago followed the Southern Dispersal Route passing through South Asia and into Southeast Asia (see Lahr 2016). At this time, the areas currently comprised of the Malay Peninsula and the western Indonesia islands were joined together to form the continent of Sunda. Migrations into the continent of Sahul (the landmass comprising Australia and New Guinea) from Sunda would have involved a series of water crossings across the Wallacean Archipelago, as part of an island hopping movement. Although the nature of the movement and specific route taken into Sahul have been widely debated, the first colonisers were relatively adept sea-farers specialised in utilising coastal resources. By following coastlines, exploiting shellfish and marine resources, it has been argued that rapid colonisation of new areas could take place (O’Connell and Allen 2015).
