Metric analyses of an Early Holocene human skeleton from Gua Gunung Runtuh, Malaysia

Abstract

A nearly complete human skeleton dating to the Early Holocene (epi-Paleolithic culture) excavated from Gua Gunung Runtuh, Malaysia, is described. Cranial, dental, and limb bone measurements are recorded on the skeleton, and compared with early and modern skeletal samples from Southeast Asia and Australia. The comparisons demonstrate that the Gua Gunung specimen is most similar to Australian Aborigines in dental and limb measurements, while the cranial measurements indicate a close affinity to Mesolithic samples from Malaysia and Flores. These findings further suggest that the Gua Gunung skeleton, as well as other fossils from Tabon and Niah, are representative of an early group of people who occupied Sundaland during the late Pleistocene, and may be the ancestors of Australian Aborigines. Some of the dental and limb bone measurements exhibited by the ancestors persist in Southeast Asian populations until the early Holocene. Differences in cranial traits have, however, accumulated since the late Pleistocene in Australian Aborigines and early Southeast Asian peoples.

Hunter-Gatherers in Southeast Asia: From Prehistory to the Present

“…A detailed examination of this skeleton has revealed close similarities with those interred at Gua Cha, as well as with Aboriginal Australians. Matsumura and Zuraina (1999) have suggested that the skeleton represents an Australo-Melanesian population of hunter-gatherers of the same stock as those who much earlier crossed into and populated Australia.…”

Mid-Holocene Hunter-Gatherers ‘Gaomiao’ in Hunan, China: The First of the Two-layer Model in the Population History of East/Southeast Asia

“…In the Late Pleistocene and early Holocene of Southeast Asia, several sets of human remains exhibit Australo-Melanesian characteristics, and it has been argued that an indigenous population possessing this morphological form occupied Southeast Asia. These skeletal data demonstrated significant genetic discontinuity between pre-and post-agricultural populations, suggesting that dramatic agriculturally driven demic expansion occurred in Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) beginning in the Neolithic period (see Matsumura and Zuraina 1999;Matsumura and Hudson 2005;Matsumura 2006;Matsumura et al 2008aMatsumura et al , 2008bMatsumura et al , 2011aMatsumura et al , 2011bOxenham et al 2011;Matsumura and Oxenham 2013a, 2013b. This population history scenario for Southeast Asia is known as the 'two-layer' or 'immigration' model, a scenario of human population movement that was first postulated in the middle of the last century (q.v., Jacob 1967).…”

Man Bac (Terra Australis 33): The Excavation of a Neolithic Site in Northern Vietnam

“…Taking into account the findings of the cranial nonmetric and cranial/dental metric analyses, it can be postulated that the inhabitants of Man Bac from northern Vietnam were closely related to the Neolithic Weidun people, essentially a rice-farming culture on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and the following schema of population history can be outlined: Neolithic Weidun→neolithic Man Bac→early Iron Age Dong Son→modern mainland Southeast Asians. Recent studies have disclosed that the late Pleistocene and early Holocene human remains from Southeast Asia, such as Gua Gunung Runtuh in Peninsular Malaysia and Mai Da Nuoc, Mai Da Dieu, and Hang Cho in northern Vietnam, exhibit osteological characteristics shared with 'Australo-Melanesians' (Matsumura and Zuraina, 1999;Cuong, 1986;. These researchers have argued that Southeast Asia was first occupied by an indigenous population, sometimes referred to as 'Australo-Melanesian', before immigrants from East Asia dispersed widely into this region .…”