Professor Glenn Summerhayes
At the time our modern ancestors arrived in Europe to replace Neanderthals, Homo sapiens had already colonised the land mass known as Sahul (comprising Papua New Guinea and Australia) for many thousands of years, says Professor Glenn Summerhayes, head of Otago's Department of Anthropology.
Research by a team of experts he led to Kosipe - one of the oldest sites of upland occupation in the world - has shown evidence that human occupation was much earlier than the previous estimate of 26,000 years.
"We now know that people have been in Papua New Guinea for 40,000 and probably 50,000 years."
Evidence suggests early colonisers of the western Pacific not only had the maritime skills to cross oceans, but had the endurance to adapt and survive in a harsh subalpine environment 2000 metres above sea level in an age when the climate was much colder than it is today.
To date, excavations by Summerhayes and his team have recovered cultural layers dated to over 35,000 years with pandanus nutshells, stone tools and increased charcoal indicating firing of the landscape.
Microscopic analyses of the stone tools have identified starch grains, some of the oldest in this part of the world.
Evidence of firing and the presence of massive stone axes indicate clearing activities, perhaps for the management of pandanus growth, which suggests some of the earliest agroforestry management in the world.
The Kosipe valley is important internationally because very little is known about this archaeological period. Each new discovery will fill a void in our understanding and "rewrite the text books" on human adaptability, Summerhayes says.
FUNDING
Marsden Fund