A new study that has been published in the journal Science Advances indicates that ancient humans traveled to Australia and New Guinea at least 60,000 years ago, significantly earlier than previously believed. In addition, the study shows that two entirely separate groups of people may have made the journey.

The land known today as Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea was once called Sahul. This area has had humans living on it for a long period of time, but according to the new study of genetic data, people traveled there from Africa much earlier than previously believed.

Most people subscribed to the ‘short chronology’ theory for the ancient ancestors living in this region, which suggested that they arrived no more than 50,000 years ago. There are, according to the authors of the new study, some flaws in this theory. Professor Martin Richards discussed the issues, saying:

“you’d have to assume that all those early archaeological dates between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago were people who got wiped out by another wave of people who came through.”

The new theory gives evidence that the first people to come to the Sahul region began migrating out of Africa after Sumatra’s Mont Toba eruption about 74,000 years ago. They made the very long journey in stages, with long-term settlements entering the Sahul land by 60,000 years ago.

Not only this, but the study shows that there were likely two distinct routes taken by two (or more) separate groups of people. Richards explains:

“There are some [haplogroups] that are restricted to the north and some that are restricted to the south, and the ones that are restricted to the south tend to link back more to mainland Southeast Asia and India. But one of the most ancient, widespread haplogroups has ancestral links back to the Philippines. So this points to two different migrations, one that came out of mainland Southeast Asia and spread around the coast of Australia, and then the other one coming into New Guinea.”

This longer occupation of the land is also readily accepted by the indigenous people of the region, who say that they have always been there. While 60,000-75,000 years may not be ‘always’, it is close enough for most people’s records.

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