Human Colonization of Asia in the Late Pleistocene

Dennell, Robin

doi:10.1086/694174

Cited by 31 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 101 publications

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“…Li et al (2019) used Least Cost Path models to evaluate the likelihood of various competing routes between known sites in the context of both glacial and interstadial climatic conditions. Their approach is interesting particularly for suggesting corridors through deserts such as the Gobi, which have been previously considered barriers to dispersal (Dennell, 2017). Using estimations of ecological tolerance, in particular of low temperature and high aridity, Beeton and colleagues (2014;Glantz et al, 2015) proposed a model in which populations retreat to the foothills of the Altai and Tian Shan during cold periods and expand into the lowlands during warmer and wetter phases.…”

Section: Central Asia As a Crossroads For Paleolithic Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

In search of a Paleolithic Silk Road in Kazakhstan

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Namen

et al. 2020

Quaternary International

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Paleoanthropological data suggest that the Late Pleistocene was a time of population contact and possibly dispersal in Central Asia. Geographic and paleoclimatic data suggest that a natural corridor through Kazakhstan linked areas to the north and east (Siberia, China) to those further to the west and south (Uzbekistan), much akin to a Paleolithic Silk Road. We review the known Pleistocene archaeology and paleoclimatic setting of this region and provide a geoarchaeological framework for contextualizing preliminary survey results of the PALAEOSILKROAD project's first three seasons of fieldwork. We discuss some systematic biases in three geomorphic and sedimentary archives: karst, loess, and spring deposits, specifying ways in which these biases might determine the kinds of data that are extractable by systematic survey. In particular, we caution about the possibility of future systematic biases in chronology that could come about as a result of the type of geomorphic context in which the sites are recovered. We conclude with recommendations for future work in the area.

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Section: Central Asia As a Crossroads For Paleolithic Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

In search of a Paleolithic Silk Road in Kazakhstan

Ioviţă

Varis

Namen

et al. 2020

Quaternary International

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“…So far, the most important fossil and archaeological discoveries have come from western central Asia [7] and the Altai region in Russia [8]. However, a complete understanding of Late Pleistocene hominin dispersals is not possible without a thorough investigation of the area connecting these two regions [9][10][11]. In particular, the piedmont areas flanked by the high mountain and lowland deserts are considered a likely location for Pleistocene refugia and might have functioned as an 'Inner Asian Mountain Corridor' (IAMC, [12]) for dispersal.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Finding karstic caves and rockshelters in the Inner Asian mountain corridor using predictive modelling and field survey

et al. 2021

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The area of the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor (IAMC) follows the foothills and piedmont zones around the northern limits of Asia’s interior mountains, connecting two important areas for human evolution: the Fergana valley and the Siberian Altai. Prior research has suggested the IAMC may have provided an area of connected refugia from harsh climates during the Pleistocene. To date, this region contains very few secure, dateable Pleistocene sites, but its widely available carbonate units present an opportunity for discovering cave sites, which generally preserve longer sequences and organic remains. Here we present two models for predicting karstic cave and rockshelter features in the Kazakh portion of the IAMC. The 2018 model used a combination of lithological data and unsupervised landform classification, while the 2019 model used feature locations from the results of our 2017–2018 field surveys in a supervised classification using a minimum-distance classifier and morphometric features derived from the ASTER digital elevation model (DEM). We present the results of two seasons of survey using two iterations of the karstic cave models (2018 and 2019), and evaluate their performance during survey. In total, we identified 105 cave and rockshelter features from 2017–2019. We conclude that this model-led approach significantly reduces the target area for foot survey.

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“…While our results do not yet definitively demonstrate west to east routes of hominin dispersal, and the use of more detailed, high-resolution inter-stadial climate models will be required in the future to confirm their viability relative to ‘glacial’ period models, they do suggest that fieldwork and survey within the Altai Mountains, the Tian Shan Mountains, the Tarim Basin, and the Gobi Desert offer much potential to reveal Pleistocene insights into hominin dispersals. Discussions of the origins of Homo sapiens , the timing and tempo of human dispersal into Asia, and our species’ environmental tolerances all remain central topics in archaeology and palaeoanthropology [103]. Yet, models of dispersal into Asia have frequently focused on southern Asia and potential coastal routes [7, 26], pathways across the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula and northwestern India [10, 29], or adaptations to tropical forests in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Melanesia [104, 105].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heading north: Late Pleistocene environments and human dispersals in central and eastern Asia

et al. 2019

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The adaptability of our species, as revealed by the geographic routes and palaeoenvironmental contexts of human dispersal beyond Africa, is a prominent topic in archaeology and palaeoanthropology. Northern and Central Asia have largely been neglected as it has been assumed that the deserts and mountain ranges of these regions acted as ‘barriers’, forcing human populations to arc north into temperate and arctic Siberia. Here, we test this proposition by constructing Least Cost Path models of human dispersal under glacial and interstadial conditions between prominent archaeological sites in Central and East Asia. Incorporating information from palaeoclimatic, palaeolake, and archaeological data, we demonstrate that regions such as the Gobi Desert and the Altai Mountain chains could have periodically acted as corridors and routes for human dispersals and framing biological interactions between hominin populations. Review of the archaeological datasets in these regions indicates the necessity of wide-scale archaeological survey and excavations in many poorly documented parts of Eurasia. We argue that such work is likely to highlight the ‘northern routes’ of human dispersal as variable, yet crucial, foci for understanding the extreme adaptive plasticity characteristic of the emergence of Homo sapiens as a global species, as well as the cultural and biological hybridization of the diverse hominin species present in Asia during the Late Pleistocene.

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Human Colonization of Asia in the Late Pleistocene

Cited by 31 publications

References 101 publications

In search of a Paleolithic Silk Road in Kazakhstan

In search of a Paleolithic Silk Road in Kazakhstan

Finding karstic caves and rockshelters in the Inner Asian mountain corridor using predictive modelling and field survey

Heading north: Late Pleistocene environments and human dispersals in central and eastern Asia

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