Modern human teeth unearthed from below the ∼128,000-year-old level at Punung, Java: A case highlighting the problem of recent intrusion in cave sediments

Kaifu, Yousuke; Kurniawan, Iwan; Yurnaldi, Dida; Setiawan, Ruly; Setiyabudi, Erick; Insani, Halmi; Takai, Masanaru; Nishioka, Yuichiro; Takahashi, Akio; Aziz, Fachroel; Yoneda, Minoru

doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.103122

Cited by 15 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…This evidence takes two forms: the carbon isotope signal of large bovids that relied exclusively on a C 4 diet (Janssen et al 2016), and, as shown in the present analysis, the predominance of R. sondaicus at Punung, which is known to have different ecological constraints from those of D. sumatrensis. Regarding the old collection from Punung studied here, however, the alternative hypothesis that it contains a mixture of elements from different stratigraphic levels remains viable (Kaifu et al 2022).…”

Section: Diverse Functional Herbivore Communitiesmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…One question remains, however: did this event also coincide with an early episodic spread of Homo sapiens into Southeast Asia as previously proposed (Storm et al 2005)? The modern-human nature of the single remaining tooth (an upper third premolar) from the 1930s collections from Punung has been challenged (Polanski et al 2016), and the possible intrusion of recent human remains into older stratigraphic levels has also been suggested (Kaifu et al 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Appendix 7.5: Taxa (Rodentia, Carnivora and Primates) found at sites in the Sundaic subregion. Kaifu et al (2022) in complement to Louys (2012) and Storm et al (2005).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Environments, terrestrial ecosystems and mammalian species: An overview of Southeast Asia in the Late Pleistocene

Bacon,

Antoine

2024

Quaternary Palaeontology and Archaeology of Sumatra

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During the highly dynamic, climate-driven Pleistocene period, mammalian communities from the Indomalayan region faced major environmental changes. In the late Middle to the Late Pleistocene, the Sunda Shelf surface was particularly affected under the influence of multiple parameterstectonic, eustatic and climatic-leading to alternating phases of exposure and flooding. The fossil faunas from the Padang Highlands in Sumatra discovered by Eugène Dubois illustrate episodes of species dispersal during the periods of exposure of land areas. Here, we analyse the assemblages of Sibrambang and Lida Ajer in the light of a selection of mammalian faunas located in continental and insular regions during two possible periods of dispersion, c. 130 ka at the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6-5 transition and c. 71 ka at the beginning of MIS 4. We investigated (1) the taxonomic composition of herbivore communities in terms of archaic versus modern taxa; (2) the functions of ecosystems, based on the type of digestive physiology of herbivores (ruminant versus non-ruminant) per body mass category; and (3) the relative abundance of some Artiodactyla, Perissodactyla and Primates. Our results show that, at the time of the earliest range expansion of modern species into Sundaland c. 130 ka, diverse functional herbivore communities containing local archaic taxa coexisted in Southeast Asia. Overall, Sundaland seems to have always been less rich in largebodied herbivore diversity compared to the Indochinese subregion, most probably reflecting the lower heterogeneity of Sundaic ecosystems, even during the period of large connections between land masses. By comparing Duoi U'Oi, Vietnam (Homo sp.; 70-60 ka) and Lida Ajer, Sumatra (Homo sapiens; 73-63 ka), two sites located at different latitudes, the results underscore the different availability to humans of herbivore prey species depending on their relative abundance in highly forested habitats.

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Section: Diverse Functional Herbivore Communitiesmentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Environments, terrestrial ecosystems and mammalian species: An overview of Southeast Asia in the Late Pleistocene

Bacon,

Antoine

2024

Quaternary Palaeontology and Archaeology of Sumatra

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“…5 Huffman et al 2012b. 6 Storm and de Vos 2006, Storm et al 2005, Westaway et al 2007; also, Kaifu et al 2022. ENDNOTES Annotated translated excerpts (A to H) of source documents concerning the paleontology of LB, LB-HK and HK in the 1891-to 1907-excavations with ecological notes on selected taxonomic lineages (I).…”

Section: Table 6-b Ngandong (Ng Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…5 Huffman et al 2012b. 6 Storm and de Vos 2006, Storm et al 2005, Westaway et al 2007; also, Kaifu et al 2022.…”

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confidence: 99%

Geology and discovery record of the Trinil Pithecanthropus erectus site, Java

Huffman

Berkhout²,

Albers

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The scientific utility of Eugène Dubois' Pithecanthropus erectus (P.e.) Skullcap (Trinil 1), Femur I (Trinil 3) and associated paleontological specimens has been impaired for over a century by questions about their provenience. Firsthand accounts and contemporaneous field photographs, presented here, extensively document the site geology and discovery history. The P.e. specimens and numerous-other fossils were unearthed in 1891- 1893 from small excavations dug into a flat-lying bonebed exposed near the seasonal low water level of the Solo River along its incised left embankment. Dubois' on-site supervisors specified that the two P.e. fossils came from a ~0.2-m-thick bonebed subunit traced at a single elevation for ~12m from the 1891 Skullcap pit (~30m 2 ) to the 1892 Femur-discovery excavation and across an enlarged 1892-1893 trench (~170m 2 ). The depositional co-occurrence of the finds is supported by key documentation: the supervisors' letters to Dubois about Femur I; his initial reporting to the Indies government; 1892-1893 accounts about expanding excavation of the Femur I stratum; Dubois' 1891 1893 government submissions and 1894-1896 publications; confirmation by the Selenka Expedition in 1907-1908; Dubois' annotations on unpublished site photographs; and a letter he wrote the year he died. Field studies in the 1930s to 1970s confirmed the essential aspects of the site geology. The bonebed of 1891-1893 contained fossils referable to the extinct Trinil fauna species Axis lydekkeri, Duboisia santeng and Stegodon trigonocephalus. The Selenka Expedition excavations had a similar assemblage in the same stratigraphic position which they named the Hauptknochenschicht. The bonebed was thin bioclast-rich gravelly volcaniclastic sandstone with taphonomic and sedimentary features indicating an unusual origin. Bioclasts range from proboscidean craniums and logs to rat teeth, freshwater mollusc shells and leaves. The terrestrial-vertebrate skeletal elements are overwhelmingly disarticulated and frequently broken. Their surfaces are little-abraded by fluvial transport. The bone fossilization is quite uniform. More than one-hundred ungulate individuals perished. No evidence has been found of hominin- or terrestrial-carnivore involvement. The bioclasts varied in density from place-to-place and vertically, and were matrix supported in the bonebed. No substantial internal depositional hiatus was reported. In combination with Trinil's paleogeographic context, these features implicate a catastrophic mortality of ungulates in a population aggregation along the floodplain of a perennial paleo-river, followed by lahar-flood transport and deposition of gravel-size lithic- and biotic-materials. Trinil provides evidence favoring a broad archaic-hominin presence in southern Sundaland. The Trinil fauna is a lynch-pin in a long-lasting paleobiogeographic association between H. erectus and certain lineages of large bovids, cervids, proboscideans, rhinoceros, suids and tiger. The bonebed's paleogeographic setting exemplifies the stratovolcanic drainages that H. erectus occupied for >0.8 million years in Java, including the watershed of a marine delta ~150km east of Trinil, a volcanic island ~100km north of Trinil, and areas to its west for 500km (where species associated with Trinil H. erectus occur). In the Java Sea (Sunda Shelf), seismic data image immense Pleistocene river- and coastal-terranes which archaic hominins and other large-mammals, like those at Trinil, might have inhabited.

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Taphonomy in Archaeology

Gutiérrez

Borrero

2024

Encyclopedia of Archaeology (Second Edition)

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Modern human teeth unearthed from below the ∼128,000-year-old level at Punung, Java: A case highlighting the problem of recent intrusion in cave sediments

Cited by 15 publications

References 44 publications

Environments, terrestrial ecosystems and mammalian species: An overview of Southeast Asia in the Late Pleistocene

Environments, terrestrial ecosystems and mammalian species: An overview of Southeast Asia in the Late Pleistocene

Geology and discovery record of the Trinil Pithecanthropus erectus site, Java

Taphonomy in Archaeology

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