Homo Erectus Tools Found in Sulawesi
Scientists have found a series of stone tools in South Sulawesi they say may be evidence of humans living 1.5 million years ago on islands between Asia and Australia, the earliest known humans in the Wallacea region. Archaeologists from Australia and Indonesia found the small, chipped tools, used to cut little animals and carve rocks, under the soil in the region of Soppeng in South Sulawesi. Radioactive tracing of these tools and the teeth of animals found around the site were dated at up to 1.48 million years ago. The findings could transform theories of early human migrations, according to an article the archaeologists published in the journal Nature in August. “These were artefacts made by ancient humans who lived on the earth long before the evolution of our species, Homo Sapiens,” said Adam Brumm, lead archaeologist from Griffith University in Queensland, Australia. “We think Homo Erectus somehow got from the Asian mainland across a significant ocean gap to this island, Sulawesi, at least 1 million years ago,” Brumm said (Jakarta Post)