DNA adds new chapter to Indonesia’s layered human history
A new study from the University of ÑÇÖÞÉ«°É and The Australian National University (ANU) has outlined the first genomic evidence of early migration from New Guinea into the Wallacea, an archipelago containing Timor-Leste and hundreds of inhabited eastern Indonesian islands.
Senggo Village, Mappi Regency, Papua, Indonesia. Credit: Gludhug Purnomo.
The study, , addresses major gaps in the human genetic history of the Wallacean Archipelago and West Papuan regions of Indonesia – a region with abundant genetic and linguistic diversity that is comparable to the Eurasian continent – including the analysis of 254 newly sequenced genomes.
In combination with linguistic and archaeological evidence, the study shows that Wallacean societies were transformed by the spread of genes and languag