The genetic origins and impacts of historical Papuan migrations into Wallacea

Abstract

We present a comprehensive study of the human genetic history of the Wallacean Archipelago and West Papuan regions of Indonesia, including 254 newly sequenced genomes, mostly from previously undocumented populations. In combination with linguistic and archaeological evidence, we show that Wallacean societies were transformed by the spread of genes and languages from West Papua in the past 3,500 y—the same period that Austronesian seafarers were actively mixing with Wallacean and Papuan groups. These migrant groups have largely replaced local Wallacean ancestry sources, challenging common assumptions that Papuan-related ancestry in Wallacea descends from first human migrants enroute to Sahul >50,000 y ago, and suggesting that these ancient movements may not be readily recoverable from modern genetic data alone.