The geoarchaeology of hominin dispersals to and from tropical Southeast Asia: A review and prognosis

Abstract

Tropical Southeast Asia is a critically important region for addressing the major questions and grand challenges that concern us today regarding Late Pleistocene hominin dispersals across the Old World. Geoarchaeological science is widely employed in many regions of the world to contextualise archaeological material and provide an environmental backdrop against which to explore archaeological narratives. However, in Southeast Asia there is an apparent lag in the routine use of this Earth-Science approach despite the abundance of archaeological sites important in explicating past hominin dispersals to and from the region. In this review of the state-of-the-art of geoarchaeological research in Southeast Asia, I examine the role of the discipline in addressing the important issues in archaeology today. I identify where geoarchaeology is being used and to what effect, highlighting gaps in the geoarchaeological dataset. From a methodological point of view it is imperative that archaeologists and geoarchaeologists working in Southeast Asia (and other humid tropical regions of the world) fully appreciate how to interpret the geoarchaeological signatures associated with this climate regime so that methods and practice can be refined. A series of steps that will serve to drive forward geoarchaeological research in the region are also proposed.

The Pleistocene geoarchaeology and geochronology of Con Moong Cave, North Vietnam: Site formation processes and hominin activity in the humid tropics

“…The destructive effects of sediment transport, bioturbation and guano‐driven diagenetic change are visible throughout the sequence at CMC. These processes commonly affect cave deposits in the tropics to a greater extent than those at higher latitudes (Morley, ; Morley & Goldberg, ; O’Connor et al, ). The related loss of (micro)stratigraphic relationships and sedimentary constituents means that the environmental histories of the sediments cannot be reconstructed solely from micromorphological analysis of thin sections (Karkanas, ; Mallol, Mentzer, & Wrinn, ; Mentzer & Quade, ).…”

“…Elevated temperatures and high, seasonal precipitation impact archaeological records in tropical regions worldwide through accelerated weathering and erosion or diagenetic alteration of archaeological material (Anderson, ; Barker, Reynolds, & Gilbertson, ; Morley, ; Morley & Goldberg, ; O’Connor, Barham, Aplin, & Maloney, ; Wurster & Bird, ). Caves mitigate weathering processes and as such, they are the major archaeological resource in tropical zones.…”

“…Nevertheless, geoarchaeological research has demonstrated that caves are taphonomically complex spaces, due to the interaction of diverse depositional and post‐depositional agencies within a confined space (Goldberg & Bar‐Yosef, ; Goldberg & Sherwood, ; Karkanas, Bar‐Yosef, Goldberg, & Weiner, ; Mallol & Goldberg, ; Morley & Goldberg, ; Morley et al, ; Stiner et al, ; Weiner, Goldberg, & Bar‐Yosef, ). The small body of geoarchaeological research targeting caves in Southeast Asia suggests that tropical conditions may have a profound effect upon archaeological site formation processes (Bacon et al, ; Barker et al, ; Gillieson, ; Lewis, ; Mijares et al, ; Morley, ; Rabett et al, ; Stephens, Rose, & Gilbertson, ; cf. Shahack‐Gross, ).…”

“…Shahack‐Gross, ). Recent investigations and regional reviews demonstrate the potential of microstratigraphic assessment to refine interpretations of environmental context, chronology and hominin behaviour (Clarkson et al, ; Hunt & Barker, ; Kourampas, Simpson, Perera, Deraniyagala, & Wijeyapala, ; Mallol & Mentzer, ; Morley, ; Morley et al, ; Sutikna et al, ), but site‐scale to microscale geoarchaeological methodologies are not yet routinely employed in MSEA or other tropical regions. As these sites have the potential to address archaeological questions of global significance (Barker et al, ; Pääbo, ; Reyes‐Centeno, ; Rabett, ), the development of a geoarchaeological framework of interpretation tailored to the taphonomic, stratigraphic and diagenetic factors active under humid tropical conditions is critical (Morley & Goldberg, ).…”

“…The late Pleistocene (~130-14 ka; Lisiecki & Raymo, 2005) prehistory of mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) remains poorly resolved due to a paucity of dated fossil and archaeological records (Dennell & Porr, 2014;Marwick, 2009;Morley, 2017;Rabett, 2018). Hominin fossils in MSEA are restricted to heavily worn teeth or bone fragments, predominantly found in cave breccias or other sediments with uncertain depositional histories or equivocal chronologies.…”