Ancient New Guinea settlers headed for the hills

First human arrivals rapidly adapted to mile-high forests 50,000 years ago

Excavations in Papua New Guinea’s western highlands have turned up the oldest well-documented evidence of people in Sahul, a land mass that once joined the island to Australia.

Stone tools and plant remains indicate that, as early as 49,000 years ago, people lived 2,000 meters, or 1.2