Insights into early modern human activity in the jungles of Southeast Asia

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Insights into early modern human activity in the jungles of Southeast Asia

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==

Local archaeologists excavating in the Tam Pà Ling *****, Laos. Credit: Vito Hernandez, Flinders University

Studying microscopic layers of dirt dug from the Tam Pà Ling ***** site in northeastern Laos has provided a team of Flinders University archaeologists and their international colleagues with further insights into some of the earliest evidence of ***** sapiens in mainland Southeast Asia.

The site, which has been studied for the past 14 years by a team of Laotian, French, ********* and *********** scientists, has produced some of the earliest fossil evidence of our direct ancestors in Southeast Asia.

Now a new study, led by Ph.D. candidate Vito Hernandez and Associate Professor Mike Morley from the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, has reconstructed the ground conditions in the ***** between 52,000 and 10,000 years ago. The work appears in Quaternary Science Reviews.

“Using a technique known as microstratigraphy at the Flinders Microarchaeology Laboratory, we were able to reconstruct the ***** conditions in the past and identify traces of human activities in and around Tam Pà Ling,” says Hernandez. “This also helped us to determine the precise circumstances by which some of the earliest modern human fossils found in Southeast Asia were deposited deep inside.”

Microstratigraphy allows scientists to study dirt in its smallest detail, enabling them to observe structures and features that preserve information about past environments, and even traces of human and animal activity that may have been overlooked during the excavation process due to their minuscule size.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==

Author Associate Professor Mike Morley. Credit: Flinders University

The human fossils discovered at Tam Pà Ling were deposited in the ***** between 86,000–30,000 years ago, but until now, researchers had not conducted a detailed analysis of the sediments surrounding these fossils to gain an understanding of how they were deposited in the ***** or the environmental conditions at the time.

The findings reveal that conditions in the ***** fluctuated dramatically, going from a temperate climate with frequent wet ground conditions to becoming seasonally dry.

“This change in environment influenced the *****’s interior topography and would have impacted how sediments, including human fossils, were deposited within the *****,” says Associate Professor Morley.

“How early ***** sapiens came to be ******* deep within the ***** has long been debated, but our sediment analysis indicates that the fossils were washed into the ***** as loose sediments and debris accumulating over time, likely carried by water from surrounding hillsides during periods of heavy rainfall.”

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==

Excavation in Tam Pà Ling. Credit: Vito Hernandez, Flinders University

The team also identified preserved micro-traces of charcoal and ash in the ***** sediments, suggesting that either forest fires occurred in the region during the drier periods, or that humans visiting the ***** may have used *****, either in the ***** or near the entrance.

“This research has allowed our team to develop unprecedented insights into the dynamics of our ancestors as they dispersed through the ever-changing forest covers of Southeast Asia, and during periods of variable regional climate instability,” says study co-author Assistant Professor Fabrice Demeter, paleoanthropologist from the University of Copenhagen, who has been leading the team of international researchers studying Tam Pàn Ling since 2009.

More information:
Late Pleistocene–Holocene (52–10 ka) microstratigraphy, fossil taphonomy and depositional environments from Tam Pa Ling ***** (northeastern Laos), Quaternary Science Reviews (2024).

Provided by
Flinders University

Citation:
Fossils and fires: Insights into early modern human activity in the jungles of Southeast Asia (2024, October 9)
retrieved 9 October 2024
from

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Insights #early #modern #human #activity #jungles #Southeast #Asia

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up