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Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, is just one example of a prominent landmark that the earliest people in Australia could have used as a navigational aid.
Simon Bradfield/iStock
Ancient Australian ‘superhighways’ suggested by massive supercomputing study
May. 4, 2021 , 3:05 PM
When humans first set foot in Australia more than 65,000 years ago, they faced the perilous task of navigating a landscape they’d never seen. Now, researchers have used supercomputers to simulate 125 billion possible travel routes and reconstruct the most likely “superhighways” these ancient immigrants used as they spread across the continent. The project offers new insight into how landmarks and water supplies shape human migrations, and provides archaeologists with clues for where to look for undiscovered ancient settlements.