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Jakarta, Indonesia — Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 7,200-year-old skeleton from a female hunter-gatherer in Indonesia that has a “distinct human lineage” never found anywhere in the world, according to research published this week.
The relatively intact fossil, which belonged to a teenager aged 17 or 18, was buried in the fetal position inside Leang Panninge, a limestone cave in South Sulawesi.
It was found among artifacts from the Toalean people, an early culture of hunter-gatherers in the region. The remains are the first known skeleton of a Toalean.
The study, which was published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, was a collaboration between Indonesian and international researchers. Excavation began in 2015.
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“This is the first time anyone has reported the discovery of ancient human DNA from the vast island region between mainland Asia and Australia,” Adam Brumm, an archaeologist at the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution at Griffith University in Brisbane, who co-led the research, told AFP Friday.
Brumm was referring to an area stretching from Kalimantan and Lombok to the western tip of Papua that is known to scientists as Wallacea.
