Geology and Archaeology: Submerged Landscapes of the Continental Shelf
Sea-level change has influenced human population globally since prehistoric times. Even in early phases of cultural development human populations were faced with marine regression and transgression as a result of changing climate and corresponding glacio-isostatic adjustment. Global marine regression during the last glaciation changed the palaeogeography of the continental shelf, converting former marine environments to attractive terrestrial habitats for prehistoric humans. These areas of the shelf were used as hunting and gathering areas, as migration routes between continents, and most probably witnessed the earliest developments in seafaring and marine exploitation, until the postglacial transgression re-submerged these palaeo-landscapes. Based on modern marine research technologies and the integration of large databases, proxy data are increasingly available for the reconstruction of Quaternary submerged landscapes. Also, prehistoric archaeological remains from the recent sea bottom are shedding new light on human prehistoric development driven by rapidly changing climate and environment. This publication contributes to the exchange of ideas and new results in this young and challenging field of underwater palaeoenvironmental investigation.
Barriers and bridges: early human dispersals in equatorial SE Asia
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Published:January 01, 2016
Abstract
Past environments of equatorial SE Asia must have played a critical role in determining the timing and trajectory of early human dispersal into and through the region. However, very few reliable terrestrial records are available with which to contextualize human dispersal events. This circumstance, coupled with a sparse archaeological record and the likelihood that much of the archaeological record is now submerged, means we have an incomplete understanding of the role that geography, climate and environment played in shaping human pre-history in this region. From a review of the literature, we conclude that there must have been a substantial environmental barrier resulting in a genetic separation between east and west Sundaland that persisted even though a terrestrial connection was present for most of the Pleistocene. This barrier is likely to be a north–south corridor of open non-forest vegetation, and its existence may have encouraged the rapid dispersal of early humans through the interior of Sundaland and on to Sahul. We conclude that more reliable terrestrial palaeoenvironmental records are required to better understand the links between past environments and dispersal events. We highlight avenues of particular research value, such as focusing on eastern Sumatra, western/southern Borneo and the islands in the Java Sea, where the purported savanna corridor most probably existed, and including edaphic factors in palaeovegetation modelling.
- archaeology
- Asia
- biodiversity
- biogeography
- Borneo
- Chordata
- climate change
- colonization
- ecology
- equatorial region
- Eutheria
- Far East
- genetics
- Hominidae
- Homo
- Homo sapiens
- human activity
- human ecology
- Indian Ocean
- Indonesia
- Indonesian Seas
- Java Sea
- land bridges
- landform evolution
- last glacial maximum
- Malay Archipelago
- Mammalia
- migration
- Pacific Ocean
- paleoclimatology
- paleoecology
- paleoenvironment
- paleogeography
- Primates
- reconstruction
- refugia
- Sahul Shelf
- sea-level changes
- South Pacific
- Southeast Asia
- Southwest Pacific
- Sumatra
- Sundaland
- Tetrapoda
- theoretical models
- Theria
- Timor Sea
- vegetation
- Vertebrata
- vicariance
- West Pacific
- savanna corridor