While there has been general consensus about the approximate date of arrival of these ancient migrants, scientists knew little about the paths that the newcomers to Sahul traveled, as they moved across the continent and established their settlements or carved out niches as hunter-gatherers so long ago. Archaeological sites linked to these distant times are difficult to find, and what has been discovered so far has not been sufficient to provide definitive answers about overland travel routes. “We decided it would be really interesting to look at this question of human migration because the ways that we conceptualize a landscape should be relatively steady for a hiker in the 21st century and a person who was way-finding into a new region 70,000 years ago,” said study leader Stefani Crabtree, an archaeologist and computational social scientist affiliated with a New Mexico-based scientific think tank known as the Santa Fe Institute. “If it’s a new landscape and we don’t have a map, we’re going to want to know how to move efficiently throughout a space, where to find water, and where to camp — and we’ll orient ourselves based on high points around the lands.”