Early presence of Homo sapiens in Southeast Asia by 86–68 kyr at Tam Pà Ling, Northern Laos

Freidline, Sarah E.; Westaway, Kira; Joannes‐Boyau, Renaud; Ponche, Jean-Luc; Morley, Mike W.; Hernandez, Vito; McAllister-Hayward, Meghan S.; McColl, Hugh; Zanolli, Clément; Gunz, Philipp; Bergmann, Inga; Sichanthongtip, Phonephanh; Sihanam, Daovee; Boualaphane, Souliphane; Luangkhoth, Thonglith; Souksavatdy, Viengkeo; Dosseto, Anthony; Boesch, Quentin; Patole-Edoumba, Élise; Aubaile, Françoise; Crozier, Françoise; Suzzoni, Eric; Frangeul, Sébastien; Bourgon, Nicolas; Zachwieja, Alexandra; Dunn, Tyler; Bacon, Anne-Marie; Hublin, Jean‐Jacques; Shackelford, Laura; Demeter, Fabrice

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-38715-y

Cited by 22 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 110 publications

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“…Recently, this was confirmed by the H . sapiens presence at Tam Pà Ling (Northern Laos) between 86 ka and 68 ka ( 50 ) ( Fig. 1 ).…”

Section: Climatic Influence On Initial Amh Dispersal To East Asiamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…( A ) Raw and aggregated age distributions of early H . sapiens fossils from China, including Luna Cave (120 to 70 ka) ( 34 ), Zhiren Cave (113 to 100 ka) ( 35 ), Tongtianyan Cave (Liujiang, 130 to 70 ka) ( 40 ), Ganqian Cave (140 to 100 ka) ( 41 ), and Fuyan Cave (120 to 80 ka) ( 36 ), and from Southeast Asia represented by Tam Pà Ling (86 to 68 ka) in Northern Laos ( 50 ) and Lida Ajer Cave (73 to 63 ka) in Sumatra ( 49 ). ( B ) Simulated timeseries of H .…”

Section: Climatic Influence On Initial Amh Dispersal To East Asiamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Concurrent Asian monsoon strengthening and early modern human dispersal to East Asia during the last interglacial

Ao,

Ruan,

Martinón-Torres

et al. 2024

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The relationship between initial Homo sapiens dispersal from Africa to East Asia and the orbitally paced evolution of the Asian summer monsoon (ASM)—currently the largest monsoon system—remains underexplored due to lack of coordinated synthesis of both Asian paleoanthropological and paleoclimatic data. Here, we investigate orbital-scale ASM dynamics during the last 280 thousand years (kyr) and their likely influences on early H. sapiens dispersal to East Asia, through a unique integration of i) new centennial-resolution ASM records from the Chinese Loess Plateau, ii) model-based East Asian hydroclimatic reconstructions, iii) paleoanthropological data compilations, and iv) global H. sapiens habitat suitability simulations. Our combined proxy- and model-based reconstructions suggest that ASM precipitation responded to a combination of Northern Hemisphere ice volume, greenhouse gas, and regional summer insolation forcing, with cooccurring primary orbital cycles of ~100-kyr, 41-kyr, and ~20-kyr. Between ~125 and 70 kyr ago, summer monsoon rains and temperatures increased in vast areas across Asia. This episode coincides with the earliest H. sapiens fossil occurrence at multiple localities in East Asia. Following the transcontinental increase in simulated habitat suitability, we suggest that ASM strengthening together with Southeast African climate deterioration may have promoted the initial H. sapiens dispersal from their African homeland to remote East Asia during the last interglacial.

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“…Recently, this was confirmed by the H . sapiens presence at Tam Pà Ling (Northern Laos) between 86 ka and 68 ka ( 50 ) ( Fig. 1 ).…”

Section: Climatic Influence On Initial Amh Dispersal To East Asiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Climatic Influence On Initial Amh Dispersal To East Asiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Concurrent Asian monsoon strengthening and early modern human dispersal to East Asia during the last interglacial

Ao,

Ruan,

Martinón-Torres

et al. 2024

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…The dispersal of our species out of Africa presents a disjunct between fossil and genetic evidence. The fossil record indicates repeated Homo sapiens presence in Eurasia from Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 8 (300–243 ka) onwards 1 – 4 , reaching mainland Southeast Asia by MIS5a (82–71 ka) 5 and Sumatra by early MIS4 (~68 ka) 6 . However, genetic evidence indicates that over 90% of non-African ancestry is derived from a single late dispersal during MIS4 (71–57 ka), reaching Sahul (the combined continent of Australia and New Guinea at times of lowered sea level) in MIS3 (57–29 ka) 7 – 12 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abrupt onset of intensive human occupation 44,000 years ago on the threshold of Sahul

Shipton,

Morley,

Kealy

et al. 2024

Nat Commun

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Archaeological evidence attests multiple early dispersals of Homo sapiens out of Africa, but genetic evidence points to the primacy of a single dispersal 70-40 ka. Laili in Timor-Leste is on the southern dispersal route between Eurasia and Australasia and has the earliest record of human occupation in the eastern Wallacean archipelago. New evidence from the site shows that, unusually in the region, sediment accumulated in the shelter without human occupation, in the window 59–54 ka. This was followed by an abrupt onset of intensive human habitation beginning ~44 ka. The initial occupation is distinctive from overlying layers in the aquatic focus of faunal exploitation, while it has similarities in material culture to other early Homo sapiens sites in Wallacea. We suggest that the intensive early occupation at Laili represents a colonisation phase, which may have overwhelmed previous human dispersals in this part of the world.

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“…Discoveries of fossil Homo sapiens in Southeast Asia are most frequently made in cave deposits (e.g. Demeter et al 1 ; Westaway et al 2 ; Freidline et al 3 ). Excavated by Eugène Dubois in the late nineteenth century, the cave deposits in the Padang Highlands of west Sumatra have been used as evidence for the early presence of modern humans in Southeast Asia (Westaway et al 2 ; Louys et al 4 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The microstratigraphy and depositional environments of Lida Ajer and Ngalau Gupin, two fossil-bearing tropical limestone caves of west Sumatra

Anderson,

Morley,

McAdams

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

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Lida Ajer and Ngalau Gupin are karstic caves situated in the Padang Highlands, western Sumatra, Indonesia. Lida Ajer is best known for yielding fossil evidence that places the arrival of Homo sapiens in Southeast Asia during Marine Isotope Stage 4, one of the earliest records for the region. Ngalau Gupin recently produced the first record of hippopotamid Hexaprotodon on the island, representing the only globally extinct taxon in Pleistocene deposits from Sumatra. Microstratigraphic (micromorphological) analyses were applied to unconsolidated fossil-bearing cave sediments from these two sites. We use micromorphology as part of a micro-contextualised taphonomic approach to identify the diagenetic processes affecting fossils and sediments within these caves, through phases of their depositional history. The fossil-bearing sediments in Lida Ajer have been subjected to a suite of natural sedimentation processes ranging from water action to carnivore occupation, which would indicate the fossils underwent significant reworking prior to lithification of the deposit. The results demonstrate that the base of the unconsolidated fossil-bearing sediments in Ngalau Gupin were derived from the interior of the cave, where the matrix was partially phosphatized as a result of guano-driven diagenesis. These observations can be used to test hypotheses about the integrity of incorporated vertebrate remains and to aid in local palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. The methods employed in this research have not previously been applied to cave sediments from sites in the Padang Highlands and provide key new insights into the palaeontological and natural history of the western region of Sumatra.

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Early presence of Homo sapiens in Southeast Asia by 86–68 kyr at Tam Pà Ling, Northern Laos

Cited by 22 publications

References 110 publications

Concurrent Asian monsoon strengthening and early modern human dispersal to East Asia during the last interglacial

Concurrent Asian monsoon strengthening and early modern human dispersal to East Asia during the last interglacial

Abrupt onset of intensive human occupation 44,000 years ago on the threshold of Sahul

The microstratigraphy and depositional environments of Lida Ajer and Ngalau Gupin, two fossil-bearing tropical limestone caves of west Sumatra

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