But Sulawesi is in the tropics, and the tropics were not frozen.

The island’s climate during the Last Glacial Maximum was cooler and drier than today but remained essentially tropical — forested, warm, productive.

The sea level was dramatically lower than today.

At the Last Glacial Maximum, sea levels were roughly 120 to 130 meters below the current level.

This means that the shallow continental shelves of Southeast Asia — the Sunda Shelf that connects the mainland of Southeast Asia to Sumatra, Java, and Borneo — were exposed land.

But Sulawesi, as noted, was never connected to the mainland.