It is a matter of great importance to assess the level of both material and spiritual culture of the early migrants to Australia and to find out if they were related to anatomically modern populations originated in Africa. In review by P.J. Habgood and N.R. Franklin (Habgood, Franklin, 2008), the authors published a detailed response to the article by S. McBrearty and A. Brooks (2000). The latter suggests that anatomically modern humans had acquired a set of innovations in Africa and this set was introduced to Eurasia and Australia in the course of migration processes. The set includes features of modern behavior such as adaptation to an alien environment, wide-range exchange, personal ornaments, symbolic behavior, art, bone working, new lithic tool production technologies, etc. Based on abundant archaeological material, Ph.J. Habgood and N.R. Franklin argued that in Pleistocene Sahul, which consisted of Australia and New Guinea, elements of modern behavior including material and spiritual culture were observed very early and cultural evolution continued over tens of millennia. The authors suppose that the transportation or exchange of obsidian, ochre, seashells, etc. took place across vast territories up to 100–300 km. Ochre has been used since the earliest time and apparently served ritual purposes. A ball of red ochre was discovered in a layer dating to 42.8 ka and 33.6 ka BP at Carpenter’s Gap in the Kimberley region. Personal sea-shell adornments appeared in Australia very close that that period. Shell beads recovered from the same site are dated to 42 – 29 ka.

Grindstones appeared in Australia some 30 ka ago. The chemical analyses of their surfaces reveal remains of starch-containing plants (Habgood, Franklin, 2008, p. 206). The lithic industry characteristic of Southeast Asia seems typical in general for all Paleolithic sites in Sahul. In addition, sites located in this area yielded the earliest evidence for stone grinding tools. The earliest hatchets with polished edges are dated between 60 – 40 ka BP. This date seems doubtful, since the hatchets were found in deposits eroded by a creek. However, the cutting tools with polished edges from the site of Sandy Creek 1 date to 32 ka BP (Ibid., p. 209). The exploitation of marine resources began before 30 ka BP. Shell mounds have been reported from several Paleolithic sites dating to at least 33 ka BP (Ibid., p. 203). Ph.J. Habgood and N.R. Franklin provide more examples suggesting that the behavior of the anatomically modern Pleistocene inhabitants of Sahul was essentially modern as well. Rather than appearing at once, those innovations were gradually accumulated over a 30 thousand years, which disagrees with the idea that colonization of Sahul by anatomically modern humans was a result of a single migration from Africa.

Shell working is an important innovation in the Paleolithic of insular Southeast Asia. The earliest evidence of shell-working was recorded at some Middle Paleolithic sites in west-central Italy. Retouched shell fl akes were found together with Mousterian stone tools in layers dated to 110 – 60 ka BP.