The Early Paleolithic Go Da Site and the Bifacial Lithic Industries of Southeast Asia

The lithic industry of the stratified site Go Da in Central Vietnam is described, and its place among the contemporaneous Early Paleolithic sites of East and Southeast Asia is determined. Results of a morphological technotypological analysis of the Go Da assemblage are provided. Go Da is attributed to the An Khe-type sites situated in the eponymous area of Vietnam. Cores and tools were made from pebbles, less often from fl akes. Primary reduction focused on simple pebble cores with natural striking-platforms, whereas radial cores were less common. Predom inant among the tools are picks, scrapers of various modifi cations, choppers, and chopping tools, as well as denticulate and notched tools; also, bifaces occur. These tools belong to a single homogeneous industry, showing common features in primary reduction, preparation, and design of key artifacts. On the basis of analysis of the stratigraphic sequence of Go Da and the absolute date of 806 ± 22 ka BP, generated by the potassium-argon analysis of tektites, it is proposed that the site is older than other dated locations with the An Khe industry. Apparently, it resulted from a convergent evolution of the pebble-fl ake industry introduced by the fi rst wave of Homo erectus from Africa. Go Da and other An Khe sites likely belong to a vast habitation zone of Southeast Asian hominins with technologically and typologically similar industries dating to the boundary between the Lower and the Middle Pleistocene.

Indonesia’s contribution in tracing the human ancestor

Since Darwin’s postulated the origin of the human species from an ape-like ancestor, the search for the missing link between ape and human had begun. In 1887, Eugene Dubois traveled from the Netherlands to Indonesia to search for the missing link. He eventually discovered human fossils in Wajak, Kedungbrubus, and Trinil to which he named Pithecanthropus erectus. The research was then continued by Ter Haar (1931) in Ngandong, Dujfyes, and his assistant, Andoyo (1936) in Perning, Mojokerto, and Von Koenigswald (1936-1940) in Sangiran, who successfully discovered many Homo erectus fossils. Since the 1960s, Sartono (ITB), T. Jacob (UGM), and Geological Research and Development Centre (Indonesia) continue the study, adding the collection of the specimens. Collaboration with the National Museum of Science and Nature, Tokyo concluded that Indonesian Homo erectus went through local evolution instead of static evolution condition. Indonesia is rich in natural resources and environmental conditions that were suitable for the evolution of early humans as shown by the discovery of several Homo erectus skeleton fossils that were not found in most other countries. This is a blessing left by early humans to us.

Significance of Skull IX in Asian Paleoanthropology

Skull IX (Tjg-1993.05) was found in Sangiran, Central Java, in 1993, and is now stored at the Institute of Technology, Bandung. It is a remarkably complete fossil cranium of Homo erectus. It is one of the six H. erectus crania from the early Pleistocene of Java that preserves a nearly complete vault and is the third Javanese H. erectus crania with a substantial part of the facial skeleton preserved. After preliminary studies by late Prof. Sartono and other researchers, our team, led by Prof. Yahdi Zaim, had an opportunity to re-reconstruct and fully describe the specimen during 2008-2010. In this paper, I introduce how we corrected the distorted original reconstruction and summarize the specimen’s implications for the Homo erectus evolution in and outside Indonesia. Skull IX closely resembles Sangiran 17 and other Javanese H. erectus crania from the same stratigraphic level. The neurocranium of Skull IX is slightly smaller than the so-far-recorded smallest cranium from this zone, suggesting this individual was female. The face exhibits some “Asian” features, which highlights regional variation in Afro-Asian archaic members of Homo.

Why don’t we look to the west?

Paleontological data indicate that the beginning of Java Island’s human habitation took place at the Plio-Pleistocene boundary, around 2.4 Ma, along with uplift process and glacial-interglacial cycles. However, the oldest Homo erectus fossil was mainly found in the eastern part of Java Island where age-dating indicates that they were from ca. 1.5 Ma, especially along the riverbanks of Bengawan Solo and Brantas, such as Perning, Sangiran, Kedungbrubus, Ngandong, Ngawi, Trinil, and Sambungmacan.Recently, Pleistocene sites were discovered from the western part of Java, e.g., Rancah (Ciamis), Semedo (Tegal), and Bumiayu (Brebes) with their archeological, paleontological, and paleoanthropological potentials. This work will present the significance of the potential, especially paleoanthropological data from the new sites, and their implications to the Quaternary prehistory research strategies determination in the future.We present new geological, archeological, paleontological, and paleoanthropological evidence from those mentioned sites. The result shows that the distribution of Homo erectus were extended to the western part of Java, between 1.8-1.7 Ma, older than the oldest previous finding of Homo erectus from Perning and Sangiran. This finding suggests a new window of the human arrival on this island. So, why don’t we look to the west? Intensive research in the future should be addressed to the western part of Java Island.

Hominin Femur finding from Banjarejo: Its morphological character and taxonomical position

Recently, Banjarejo became an important prehistoric site for Quaternary research because of its significant faunal and hominin remains. This study aims to describe a new finding of the hominin femur specimen from the site and its taxonomical position in human evolution. The specimen was identified by morphological and metric descriptions of the external feature of the femur. Then, comparative study to Homo erectus (n=2), Homo neanderthalensis (n=8), Homo heidelbergensis (n=1), prehistoric Homo sapiens (n=44), Australopithecus africanus (n=1), Paranthropus robustus (n=2), also non-human primate including Pongo (n=1), Macaca (n=1) and Gibbon (n=1) using bivariate and multivariate statistical analysis presented the specimen in the evolutionary perspective. This study shows the morphological and metric character of Banjarejo specimen located between Homo erectus and prehistoric Homo sapiens population sample. Further study should be addressed to investigate the cultural and chronological context of the hominin specimen.

Human mitochondrial DNA diversity is compatible with the multiregional continuity theory of the origin of Homo sapiens

Confidence intervals for estimates of human mtDNA sequence diversity, chimpanzee-human mtDNA sequence divergence, and the time of splitting of the pongid-hominid lineages are presented. Consistent with all the data used in estimating the coalescence time for human mitochondrial lineages to a common ancestral mitochondrion is a range of dates from less than 79,000 years ago to more than 1,139,000 years ago. Consequently, the hypothesis that a migration of modern humans (Homo sapiens) out of Africa in the range of 140,000 to 280,000 years ago resulted in the complete replacement, without genetic interchange, of earlier Eurasian hominid populations (Homo erectus) is but one of several possible interpretations of the mtDNA data. The data are also compatible with the hypothesis, suggested earlier and supported by fossil evidence, of a single, more ancient expansion of the range of Homo erectus from Africa, followed by a gradual transition to Homo sapiens in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Cognitive and behavioral modernity in Homo erectus: skull globularity and hominin brain evolution

In this article we provide evidence that evolutionary pressures altered the cranial base and the mastoid region of the temporal bone more than the calvaria in the transition from H. erectus to H. sapiens. This process seems to have resulted in the evolution of more globular skull shape – but not as a result of expansion of the brain in the parietal regions but of reduction of the cranial base and the mastoid region relative to the parietals. Consequently, we argue that expansion of the parietals seems to be unrelated to brain evolution, but is more a by-product of reduction in other regions of the skull, reduction that may be related to dietary factors. Additionally, these findings suggest that cognitive and behavioural modernity may not necessarily be dependent on brain shape. Also, it cannot be attributed to the change in brain size because H. erectus and modern human cranial capacities overlap substantially. Consequently, we suggest H. erectus possessed the full suite of cognitive adaptations characteristic of modern humans without possessing a globular skull with flared parietals. Our results also support the theory that paedomorphic morphogenesis of the skull was important in the transition from H. erectus to H. sapiens and that such changes may be related to both dietary factors and social evolution.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s Phenomenology of the Noosphere

Although Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) was thoroughly trained in philosophy and theology, he was first and foremost a paleoanthropologist, directly involved in the discovery of Homo erectus pekinensis (“Sinanthropus”) in China in the 1920s and 1930s. He came from a Catholic aristocratic background, was ordained a priest in 1911, survived World War I (as a stretcher-bearer, distinguished with the Legion of Honour), joined the Jesuit Order, conducted paleoanthropological field work during the interbellum, and became entangled in a conflict with his Jesuit superiors (over pantheism and the concept of original sin) until his death in New York (in exile more or less). When his writings were published (shortly after his death, as his superiors forbade publication during his lifetime), he quickly became an intellectual celebrity. Currently, he is credited with having anticipated Gaia theory (King, 2006), the global village concept (McLuhan, 1962), the Internet (Barlow, 1992; Cobb, 1998), the WWW (Garreau, 2005, p. 256; Greenfield, 2014, p. 9), transhumanism (Delio, 2014; Steinhart, 2008), the “global brain” (Stock, 1993), and the Anthropocene (e.g. Crutzen, 2002; Steffen et al., 2011).

Dietary strategies of Pleistocene Pongo sp. and Homo erectus on Java (Indonesia)

During the early Pleistocene, Java was inhabited by a high variety of hominid and hominin taxa with hitherto unclear seasonal dietary demands. We undertook the first geochemical analyses of Pongo sp., Homo erectus and mammalian Pleistocene teeth from Sangiran. We reconstructed past dietary strategies at daily resolution and inferred sub-seasonal ecological patterns. Histologically-controlled spatially-resolved elemental analyses by LA-ICPMS, confirmed the preservation of authentic biogenic signals despite very weak diagenetic overprint. The Sr/Ca record of mammals is in line with expected trophic positions, contextualizing fossil hominid diet. Herbivorous Pongo sp. displays marked seasonal cycles with ~3-month-long strongly elevated Sr/Ca peaks, reflecting highly nutritional plant food during monsoon seasons. Lower Sr/Ca signals suggest different food availability during the dry season. In contrast, omnivorous Homo erectus shows low and less accentuated intra-annual Sr/Ca variability. We infer that Homo erectus maintained its nutritional demands independent of seasonal fluctuations by exploiting the regional diversity of high-quality food resources.