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New evidence from East Timor contributes to our understanding of earliest modern human colonisation east of the Sunda Shelf

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Sue O'Connor
Sue O'Connor*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Acton, ACT, 0200, Australia (Email: soconnor@coombs.anu.edu.au)
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Extract

New dates by which modern humans reached East Timor prompts this very useful update of the colonisation of Island Southeast Asia. The author addresses all the difficult questions: why are the dates for modern humans in Australia earlier than they are in Island Southeast Asia? Which route did they use to get there? If they used the southern route, why or how did they manage to bypass Flores, where Homo floresiensis, the famous non-sapiens hominin known to the world as the ‘hobbit’ was already in residence? New work at the rock shelter of Jerimalai suggests some answers and new research directions.

Keywords

PleistoceneIsland Southeast AsiaEast TimorHomo sapiensHomo floresiensishuman colonisation
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 81 , Issue 313 , 1 September 2007 , pp. 523 - 535
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2007

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