In the rugged landscapes of Papua New Guinea—where more than 800 languages echo across valleys and coasts—a remarkable discovery has brought new clarity to one of humanity’s greatest migrations. In a new study, researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig have recovered the first ancient genomes (aDNA) from Papua New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago—unlocking genetic insights from a region as culturally rich as it is historically pivotal.