ABSTRACT
Until recently archaeologists believed that humans (Homo sapiens) and their recent ancestors (Homo erectus) did not cross deep-water straits until approximately 50,000 years ago. However, recent evidence suggests that Homo erectus may have crossed the Wallace Line (an imaginary boundary separating Australian and Asian floras and faunas based on marine geographic separation) up to 800,000 years ago and that Australia was colonized more than 60,000 years ago. Evidence from South-east Asia also indicates that humans were frequently travelling between the Moluccas, Borneo and Bali as long ago as 33,000 years ago (Bellwood, 1997; Gibbons, 1998).
