Diaspora Austronesia Di Indonesia Berdasarkan Tinggalan Rangka Manusia

Abstract

Austronesian migration since 4,500 years ago is an amazing phenomenon in the history of human civilization, related to the vast area and the time of spreading in the Indonesian Archipelago. There are not so many papers that summarize the Austronesian traces from paleoanthropological perspective. This paper describes the Austronesian diaspora in the archipelago, based on the physical characteristics of the human remains (especially craniodental), found in the archaeological context. Human remains with neolithic burial context were found in several cave sites on the karstic mountains at around 3,500 years ago, while skeletal remains with a paleometallic burial context were found from several coastal jar burial sites dating back to 2,000 years ago. In the future, intensive research is needed to determine whether the two diff erent burial characteristics are the result of cultural evolution or refl ects two layers of migration.