November/December 2019 Issue

INDONESIA: The first modern humans in Australia may have migrated there from Southeast Asia via the islands of Indonesia. Two new skull fragments from Alor Island, dating to between 17,000 and 12,000 years ago, hint that the Wallacean Islands may have been a stop on this migration route. One peculiar aspect of these skulls is their small size. This may be due to the “island effect.” This theory posits that when humans and other mammals live on islands lacking sufficient nutrition, they gradually become smaller.

CHINA: Obscure engravings on animal bones from the site of Lingjing in Henan Province suggest that early hominins who lived there 125,000 years ago may have had more advanced cognitive abilities than once believed. The mysterious markings proved to have been etched into the bone, which was then rubbed with red ochre powder to make the markings more visible. Experts do not yet know why early humans made these abstract designs, nor what they represent.

IRAN: It turns out that a fossilized tooth found decades ago in the Zagros Mountains did not belong to a modern human as previously thought, but rather to a Neanderthal child who lived between 70,000 and 40,000 years ago. A recent reexamination using modern techniques established the new dating and identification. The researchers say it is the first evidence that Neanderthals once lived in this area of present-day Iran. The species roamed across much of Europe and Western Asia before going extinct 40,000 years ago.