Informant38

The principal finding of the project so far is that the level of maritime competence required to cross from Timor to Australia with a minimal number of males and females is far in excess of what had been assumed available to these hominids. Hundreds of specific skills are involved, in procuring, transporting, processing, curating, fashioning and assembling numerous materials for one singular, totally abstract goal: to reach a still invisible shore, at immense cost in labour and hardship, and with a perseverance to be maintained over periods of many months. It is perfectly possible to do this with Middle, even Lower Palaeolithic technology. But it is an achievement that renders all current ideas about the cognitive, intellectual and linguistic abilities of these hominids totally superseded.