Early art, culture and occupation along the northern route to Australia

该项目旨在揭示印度尼西亚北方岛链（从婆罗洲到西巴布亚）早期人类的考古证据。这个鲜为人知的地区拥有世界上已知最早的比喻洞穴艺术（> 45，500年），它也是现代人类在65，000年前澳大利亚最初定居期间最有可能使用的海上路线。该项目旨在利用洞穴挖掘和岩石艺术来填补这些岛屿上最早的已知考古证据与澳大利亚最古老的人类遗址之间的2万年差距。预期成果包括对印度尼西亚古代历史的新见解，以及对第一批澳大利亚人祖先的艺术和文化生活方式的极大了解。

This project aims to uncover archaeological evidence for early humans in Indonesia's northern island chain (from Borneo to West Papua). This poorly known region harbours the world's earliest known figurative cave art (>45,500 years old), and it is also the most likely maritime route used by modern humans during the initial peopling of Australia ~65,000 years ago. The project aims to use cave excavations and rock art dating to fill the 20,000 year gap between the earliest known archaeological evidence from these islands and the oldest human site in Australia. Expected outcomes include new insight into the ancient past of Indonesia and a greatly improved understanding of the art and cultural lifeways of the ancestors of the First Australians.