Open-sea crossing to Sahul (watercraft)
Navegación de altura y embarcaciones (travesía a Sahul)
- Date
- c. 65 ka · confidence medium
- Place
- Madjedbebe Shelter, Arnhem Land, Australia
- Credited to
- Homo sapiens
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
The colonisation of Sahul (Australia–New Guinea) required crossing 70–100 km stretches of sea with no coast in sight, using rafts or canoes able to carry viable founding groups.
The Madjedbebe date (65 ka) is disputed against the genetic evidence (c. 50 ka). Homo erectus reached Flores a million years ago, perhaps by accidental drift rather than intentional navigation.
What it led to
- The first human expansion into a continent unreachable on foot
- Planning one-way voyages with no return: knowledge of winds and currents
- Isolation of populations: Australian cultural and genetic diversity
- Island exploitation and the later colonisation of Japan and nearby Oceania
Built on
- Systematic shellfish exploitationc. 164 ka
- Cordage (twisted fibre string)c. 50 ka
- Systematic shellfish exploitation
- Cordage (twisted fibre string)