• Ancient stone tools dating up to 1.5 million years found in Indonesia's Sulawesi.
• These findings suggest earlier human presence in Wallacea than previously believed.
• Research may reshape understanding of human migration across oceans.
• Homo erectus is identified as the likely maker of these tools.
• The discoveries were made by Australian and Indonesian archaeologists.

Archaeologists from Australia and Indonesia recently uncovered a series of stone tools on Sulawesi island, which may indicate the presence of hominids living 1.5 million years ago. These tools, discovered in Soppeng, were utilized for cutting small animals and carving rocks. The tools and adjacent animal teeth were dated to around 1.48 million years ago, challenging existing timelines regarding early human settlements in the Wallacea region, according to SCMP, Reuters, and The Jakarta Post.

These remarkable findings could significantly alter theories on early human migrations. Previously, Homo erectus was thought to have settled only in Flores and Luzon about 1.02 million years ago, as they were believed to lack the capacity for long-distance sea travel. The evidence from Sulawesi presents a compelling case that these early humans may have traversed substantial oceanic distances, as stressed by Adam Brumm, lead archaeologist from Griffith University in Queensland. "We think Homo erectus somehow got from the Asian mainland across a significant ocean gap to this island," Brumm stated, highlighting the importance of these discoveries in understanding migration patterns, according to The Jakarta Post and Reuters.

Furthermore, the archaeological article published in the journal Nature notes that these artefacts are significantly older than previously recorded evidence of hominins in the area. This evidence redefines our understanding of the capabilities of Homo erectus and potentially adds depth to the narrative of human evolution on isolated islands. The region, known as Wallacea, includes various islands between Asia and Australia and is named after the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, as reported by SCMP, Reuters, and The Jakarta Post.