Oxford study discovers oldest plant artefact outside Africa

In collaboration with Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia, the study unearthed the find in a cave in West Papua, an Indonesian province on the island of New Guinea.

It suggests the earliest Pacific seafarers arrived there more than 55,000-50,000 years ago.

The study's lead author, Dr Dylan Gaffney, from the University of Oxford’s School of Archaeology, said: "Charting the earliest dispersals of people into West Papua is vital because it lies at the gateway to the Pacific, and helps us understand where the ancestors of the wider region - including Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand, and Hawai‘i - came from and how they adapted to living in this new and unfamiliar sea of islands."

Scientists have not yet been able to pin down exactly when and where early humans travelled on their journey into the Pacific.

Moses Dailom, team member and study co-author, sorts archaeological material at Mololo Cave (Image: Tristan Russell (The Raja Ampat Archaeological Project))

There is a belief that Homo sapiens may have taken either a northern route from present-day Borneo into Sulawesi, Maluku, and then West Papua, or a southern route from present-day Java and Bali to Flores, Timor, and then Australia.

Previous research has hinted seafarers arrived to Sahul perhaps as early as 65,000 years ago, while other archaeologists insist these maritime crossings did not take place until after 50,000 years ago.

The new study, carried out on Waigeo Island in West Papua, provides the first detailed evidence for the earliest stage of human arrival along the northern route into the Pacific.

The team’s excavations at a large cave site called Mololo uncovered rare evidence for human settlement and behaviour, including animal bones and a small rectangular tree resin artefact.

Dated between 55,000 and 50,000-years-old, the latter is the oldest known plant artefact created by our species outside of Africa.

Scientists presume it was made by cutting the bark of a resin-producing tree, letting it set and snapping it to shape, perhaps to be used as fuel.

A modern tree resin artefact used to make fire on Waigeo Island (Image: Dylan Gaffney (The Raja Ampat Archaeological Project))

Professor Daud Tanudirjo of Universitas Gadjah Mada, the co-director of the study, said: "The use of complex plant processing indicates these humans were sophisticated, highly mobile, and able to devise creative solutions to living on small tropical islands."

The findings give the first firm, directly radiocarbon dated evidence humans navigated the northern route to the Pacific region before 50,000 years ago, indicating small Pacific islands along the equator were key places for human migration and adaptation.

This new evidence demonstrates Homo sapiens living along the northern route were skilled seafarers who could deliberately move between islands and develop complex, multi-step tools.