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19 minutes ago
Saturday, February 7, 2009
SE Asia before Hoabinian (just a note)
Searching a bit in the Net on Asian Paleolithic, specially Southern and SE Asian because of their importance regarding the early human expansion in Eurasia, found this e-book: Prehistory of the Indo-Malaysian Archipielago by P. Bellwood (p. 159-161).
My interest focuses in what existed prior to Hoabinian (c. 17,000-3,000 BP):
1. Sonviian: N. Vietnam, S. Thailand and peninsular Malaysia (c. 23-11,000 BP uncalibrated). Somewhat different from Hoabinian but also a "cobble culture". Both cultures overlap in space and time.
2. Kota Tampan (peninsular Malaysia): c. 31,000 BP (dated by fission racks in zircon) over a Toba explosion ash layer. Resembles Sonviian. Unlike further north, there is a blank between Kota Tampan and full Hoabinian (c. 13,000 BP)
3. Lang Rongrien (southern Thailand): c. 38,000-28,000 BP (uncalibrated), and related site Moh Khiew (c. 26,000 BP), with a bifacial retouch industry. Distinct from the other "cobble cultures". The author suggests it could be similar to another culture in Sabah. Lang Rongrien also has a Hoabinian of later date, with a thick sterile layer in between.
The LGM hiatus seems unique to the Malay peninsula and southern Thailand and does not exist furthern north in SE Asia or China.
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I'd thank any reader who could point me to useful links (not books) on Asian Middle and Upper Paleolithic, very specially those that provide synthetic data with dates (and, yeah, I love maps and illustrations too)
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6 comments:
"The LGM hiatus seems unique to the Malay peninsula and southern Thailand".
Human extinction in the region? Didn't you say it could only happen on small, remote islands? Of course local extinction may have been caused by ecological change. Bellwood mentions that the deep forest was uninhabited at the time. This is another position you have disagreed with me on when I have claimed it to be so.
Here's a link to an old book (1978)by Peter Bellwood you should find useful:
http://books.google.es/books?id=6kDm5d3cMIYC&pg=PT17&lpg=PT17&dq=Bellwood,+Peter+%281978%29+Man%E2%80%99s+Conquest+of+the+Pacific&source=bl&ots=Qjx2hfLwBK&sig=ZAVvZvQlUKJYeLOSYiRa5r25ydc&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=12&ct=result#PPP1,M1
My own essays on the origin of the Polynesians at remote central are based on Bellwood's work along with other more recent research on the topic, along with discussions with geneticists currently working on the subject. I agree with you that study of the processes in the region can tell us a great deal about what has happened in other regions. As I've told you elsewhere, I believe we should examine all the evidence through the same set of spectacles, unless we reach the point where we just cannot make sense of the evidence without changing them.
You may not have read my essay which includes aspects of the Hoabinhian:
http://remotecentral.blogspot.com/search/label/Human%20Evolution%20on%20Trial%20-%20Pacific%20Population
Human extinction in the region? Didn't you say it could only happen on small, remote islands?
Does not necesarily mean "extinction". Central Europe was once considered that way and now it's acknowledged that pockets of people remained where conditions were more benevolent (Moravia for instance).
Nevertheless it may be true that some areas (Central Europe, Iran-Iraq, North Africa) may have suffered major demographic declines in relation with some climatic epysodes, allowing for a recolonization from other provinces at later time. I'm not sure if this is really true for SE Asia, especially as a so many areas then rich now are under the sea.
Bellwood mentions that the deep forest was uninhabited at the time.
Hmmm... probably wrong.
You may not have read my essay which includes aspects of the Hoabinhian
Checked now. Your main reference is an old book from 1969 and your "lawyering" style makes it difficult to pick apart facts from your own hypothesis.
You may be right or not. It's hard to say. Personally I find outmost difficult to see major mass migrations in the difussion of polished axes or stuff like that. More like cultural difussion IMO. The case of Australia (never Neolithic) seems to emphasize that difussionist pattern.
Sorry I didn't reply before, did not notice your comment.
"your "lawyering" style makes it difficult to pick apart facts from your own hypothesis".
I state specifically whenever it is my own hypothesis. For example I comment in the essay that it is my own theory that the Hoabinhian people spoke 'IndoPacific' languages. I haven't referenced every single statement because it would make for a tiresome read, but all the statements in any paragraph basically derive from the reference given in that paragraph. As for:
"Your main reference is an old book from 1969".
Interestingly I've just read a book on the Pacific written way back in 1951. And guess what? In spite of the more than 50 years research in the region the basic outline of human expansion into the Pacific has remained unchanged since that time. Of course the details have been filled in somewhat. So you can assume both the link I provided and my essay are still pretty much correct and should provide you with much of the information you seek.
The data may be roughly the same but in the past migratory interpretations were almost always chosen by default. Today the understanding is less clear-cut, more complex and rich.
"Today the understanding is less clear-cut, more complex and rich".
And the patterns of human migration are revealed to have been far more complex than many of us are prepared to accept, even today. But the data from those early researchers has not been superceded by any later discoveries.
You insist on migrations and more migrations but if you look at my consideration of Eurasian mtDNA, it looks like the migratonal flows just stopped some milennia after the main expansive wave(s). There might have been two expansions then but that seems all. There's no reason to think of any large migration after the second apparent wave, at least till post-Neolithic times.
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