[Aqualist] Zoom Seminar - Prof. Michael Bird Friday 18th Sept 12-1pm

[Helen Bostock Lyman]

This week SEES at UQ will be hosting a talk that might be of interest: The earliest human trans-oceanic migration event in human history
Professor Michael Bird from James Cook University
18 September 2020 12:00pm–1:00pm (AEST)
zoom link https://uqz.zoom.us/j/99635115043<https://uqz.zoom.us/j/99635115043?fbclid=IwAR31LAbvL74rCjIYlT3KrdAlUm_iZP67VkVufgyTNXZfzE5Tz_6KfjcyPdU>

Anatomically Modern Humans dispersed rapidly through Sunda and Wallacea and arrived in Sahul (the combined landmass of Australia and New Guinea joined at times of lowered sea level), before 50,000 years ago. The establishment of a viable founder population in Sahul from the islands of Wallacea necessarily involved several prior water crossings. Multiple routes through Wallacea to Sahul have been proposed and all involve at least one open ocean, multi-day voyage approaching 100 km. This paper first considers the constraints and opportunities imposed by the palaeoenvironments and palaeogeography of the region at the time of human dispersal. It will present inter-visibility and drift simulation evidence that multiple crossings between inter-visible locations were possible, with varying degrees of difficulty. These routes can be broadly categorized into those making landfall on the Northwest shelf from Timor-Roti, and those arriving on the Brid’s Head in New Guinea from a number of islands east of Sulawesi. Drift modelling suggests that the chance of random arrival was small by any route. However, even minimal directed headway at optimal times of the year, both implying purpose on the part of the voyagers, greatly improves the chances of making a successful landfall. Demographic modelling indicates that a founding population of between 1,300 and 1,550 individuals was necessary to maintain a quasi-extinction threshold of ≲0.1. This minimum founding population could have arrived at a single point in time, or through multiple voyages of ≥130 people each over ~700–900 years. This result shows that substantial population amalgamation in Sunda and Wallacea in Marine Isotope Stages 3–4 provided the conditions for the successful, large-scale and probably planned peopling of Sahul.

Link to related publication:
Early human settlement of Sahul was not an accident (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-42946-9<https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-42946-9?fbclid=IwAR31LAbvL74rCjIYlT3KrdAlUm_iZP67VkVufgyTNXZfzE5Tz_6KfjcyPdU>)



Dr Helen Bostock
BA, MSci, PhD
Associate Professor of Oceanography

School of Earth and Environmental Sciences
The University of Queensland
Brisbane Qld 4072 Australia

T +61 7 3665 6082
E h.bostock at uq.edu.au<mailto:h.bostock at uq.edu.au>

CRICOS 00025B

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