PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Around the World January 1, 2011

Archaeologists have found the earliest high-altitude settlements of modern humans, 1.2 miles up in the chilly Ivane Valley.
SHARE:

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Archaeologists have found the earliest high-altitude settlements of modern humans, 1.2 miles up in the chilly Ivane Valley. People used the five camps around 49,000 years ago, leaving behind stone tools and charred nutshells and bones. They may have lived there, as opposed to more temperate areas on the coast, to take advantage of abundant high-altitude food resources. But they would have needed some well-developed survival skills to thrive and avoid hypothermia. 

  • Features November/December 2026

    A Tomb of One’s Own

    Life behind the scenes in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings

    Read Article
    Painted scene from Ipuy's chapel depicting men catching fish from a boat
    © Matjaz Kacicnik/Project TT 217–The Tomb of the Sculptor Ipuy in Context (JGU Mainz, IFAO Cairo)
  • Features November/December 2026

    Outfitting Viking Voyagers

    In Denmark, archaeologists have discovered a massive factory that equipped an innovative fleet

    Read Article
    Aerial view of excavation of three pit house foundations, Soften, Denmark
    Moesgaard Museum
  • Features November/December 2026

    Stone Age Stargazers

    Did artists 12,000 years ago illuminate a cave in Tajikistan with their vision of the Milky Way?

    Read Article
    ˝© Nodir Tursun-Zade
  • Features November/December 2026

    Unearthing the Outlanders

    New discoveries challenge ancient prophecies about the peoples living on China’s borders three millennia ago

    Read Article
    Courtesy Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology