«It looks like
seafaring capabilities and seafaring technology have a much greater antiquity than conventional wisdom among archaeologists would lead one to expect,» says James O'Connell, an archaeologist at the University of Utah.
Morwood, who passed away on July 23 from cancer, made important contributions in research areas ranging from the rock art of Australia's Kimberly region to
the seafaring capabilities of Homo erectus.
«It seems coherent for us to think that in south - east Asia and Australia, humans had
seafaring capabilities by 60,000 to 70,000 years ago,» says expedition member Florent Detroit of the National Museum for Natural History in Paris, France.