The ‘human revolution’ in lowland tropical Southeast Asia: the antiquity and behavior of anatomically modern humans at Niah Cave (Sarawak, Borneo

Storia dell'amicizia: da quella narrata solo tra uomini alla nascita dell'amizia tra uomini e donne. In particolare l'amicizia tra Rosalba Carriera e Anton Maria Zanetti

Radical realists criticise the role that moral intuitions play in moralist political philosophy. However, radical realists may also appear to rely on certain epistemic intuitions when making use of their theories of ideology critique. Hence, one might wonder whether radical realists' criticism of moralists' intuition-dependence is hypocritical. Call this the intuition asymmetry objection. My aim in this article is to show that the intuition asymmetry objection fails. After examining the basis of radical realists' objections to the role of moral intuitions in moralist political philosophy, I show that the presence of intuitions in radical realist theories of ideology critique is consistent with their criticism of moralism.

This article was originally published in a journal published by Elsevier, and the attached copy is provided by Elsevier for the author’s benefit and for the benefit of the author’s institution, for non-commercial research and educational use including without limitation use in instruction at your institution, sending it to specific colleagues that you know, and providing a copy to your institution’s administrator. All other uses, reproduction and distribution, including without limitation commercial reprints, selling or licensing copies or access, or posting on open internet sites, your personal or institution’s website or repository, are prohibited. For exceptions, permission may be sought for such use through Elsevier’s permissions site at: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissionusematerial Journal of Human Evolution 52 (2007) 243e261 co p y The ‘human revolution’ in lowland tropical Southeast Asia: the antiquity and behavior of anatomically modern humans at Niah Cave (Sarawak, Borneo) al Graeme Barker a,*, Huw Barton b, Michael Bird c, Patrick Daly d, Ipoi Datan e, Alan Dykes f, Lucy Farr g, David Gilbertson h, Barbara Harrisson i, Chris Hunt j, Tom Higham k, Lisa Kealhofer l, John Krigbaum m, Helen Lewis n, Sue McLaren o, Victor Paz p, Alistair Pike q, Phil Piper r, Brian Pyatt s, Ryan Rabett a, Tim Reynolds t, Jim Rose g, Garry Rushworth u, Mark Stephens b, Chris Stringer v, Jill Thompson w, Chris Turney x a Received 5 April 2006; accepted 31 August 2006 Au th or 's pe rs on McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3ER, UK b School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK c School of Geography and Geosciences, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9AL, UK d Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117570 e Sarawak Museum Department, Tun Abang Haji Openg Road, 94566 Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia f 62 Lowerhouses Lane, Huddersfield HU5 8JY, UK g Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham TW20 0EX, UK h School of Geography, University of Plymouth, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK i Op e terp, Jelsum 9057 RG, Netherlands j School of Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK k Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QJ, UK l Department of Anthropology, Environmental Studies Institute, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA 95053, USA m Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA n School of Archaeology, Newman Building, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland o Department of Geography, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK p Archaeological Studies Program, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City 1101, Philippines q Department of Archaeology, University of Bristol, 43 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UU, UK r Department of Archaeology, University of York, The King’s Manor, York YO1 7EP, UK s Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Centre, College of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK t Birkbeck College, Faculty of Continuing Education, University of London, London WC1B 5DQ, UK u Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK v Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK w Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK x GeoQuest Research Centre, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia * Corresponding author. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3ER, UK. E-mail addresses: gb314@cam.ac.uk (G. Barker), hjb15@le.ac.uk (H. Barton), michael.bird@st-andrews.ac.uk (M. Bird), aripd@nus.edu.sg (P. Daly), ipoid@ sarawaknet.gov.my (I. Datan), alandykes@nascr.net (A. Dykes), l.r.farr@rhul.ac.uk (L. Farr), bdglbrtsn@aol.com (D. Gilbertson), b.harrisson@tiscali.nl (B. Harrisson), c.hunt@qub.ac.uk (C. Hunt), thomas.higham@archaeology-research.ox.ac.uk (T. Higham), lkealhofer@scu.edu (L. Kealhofer), krigbaum@ufl.edu (J. Krigbaum), helen.lewis@ucd.ie (H. Lewis), sjm11@le.ac.uk (S. McLaren), victor.paz@up.edu.ph (V. Paz), alistair.pike@bristol.ac.uk (A. Pike), phil_piper2003@yahoo.ie (P. Piper), brian.pyatt@ntu.ac.uk (B. Pyatt), rjr21@cam.ac.uk (R. Rabett), te.reynolds@bbk.ac.uk (T. Reynolds), j.rose@rhul.ac.uk (J. Rose), g.rushworth@bradford.ac.uk (G. Rushworth), ms338@le.ac.uk (M. Stephens), c.stringer@nhm.ac.uk (C. Stringer), j.b.thompson@bradford.ac.uk (J. Thompson), turney@uow.edu.au (C. Turney). 0047-2484/$ - see front matter Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2006.08.011 244 G. Barker et al. / Journal of Human Evolution 52 (2007) 243e261 Abstract al co p y Recent research in Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia suggests that we can no longer assume a direct and exclusive link between anatomically modern humans and behavioral modernity (the ‘human revolution’), and assume that the presence of either one implies the presence of the other: discussions of the emergence of cultural complexity have to proceed with greater scrutiny of the evidence on a site-by-site basis to establish secure associations between the archaeology present there and the hominins who created it. This paper presents one such case study: Niah Cave in Sarawak on the island of Borneo, famous for the discovery in 1958 in the West Mouth of the Great Cave of a modern human skull, the ‘Deep Skull,’ controversially associated with radiocarbon dates of ca. 40,000 years before the present. A new chronostratigraphy has been developed through a re-investigation of the lithostratigraphy left by the earlier excavations, AMS-dating using three different comparative pretreatments including ABOX of charcoal, and U-series using the Diffusion-Absorption model applied to fragments of bones from the Deep Skull itself. Stratigraphic reasons for earlier uncertainties about the antiquity of the skull are examined, and it is shown not to be an ‘intrusive’ artifact. It was probably excavated from fluvial-pond-desiccation deposits that accumulated episodically in a shallow basin immediately behind the cave entrance lip, in a climate that ranged from times of comparative aridity with complete desiccation, to episodes of greater surface wetness, changes attributed to regional climatic fluctuations. Vegetation outside the cave varied significantly over time, including wet lowland forest, montane forest, savannah, and grassland. The new dates and the lithostratigraphy relate the Deep Skull to evidence of episodes of human activity that range in date from ca. 46,000 to ca. 34,000 years ago. Initial investigations of sediment scorching, pollen, palynomorphs, phytoliths, plant macrofossils, and starch grains recovered from existing exposures, and of vertebrates from the current and the earlier excavations, suggest that human foraging during these times was marked by habitat-tailored hunting technologies, the collection and processing of toxic plants for consumption, and, perhaps, the use of fire at some forest-edges. The Niah evidence demonstrates the sophisticated nature of the subsistence behavior developed by modern humans to exploit the tropical environments that they encountered in Southeast Asia, including rainforest. Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. rs on Keywords: Behavioral modernity; Dating; Subsistence; Tropical environments Introduction Au th or 's pe Debates concerning the ‘human revolution,’ the emergence of cognitively-modern human behavior, have traditionally focused on the appearance in the European archaeological record ca. 45e30,000 years ago of material culture thought to indicate the cognitive complexity of early Homo sapiens compared with other archaic hominin species (Mellars, 1989, 1996, 2005). However, the re-dating of fossil human remains at several key Aurignacian sites has shown some remains to be intrusive (Conard et al., 2004), casting doubt on the assumed direct correlation between Aurignacian material culture and anatomically modern humans. At the same time, research in sub-Saharan Africa has demonstrated ancestral instances of many of the behavioral characteristics of the European Upper Paleolithic (McBrearty and Brooks, 2000), whilst highlighting the dangers of transposing behavioral type-markers from one region to another (Henshilwood and Marean, 2003). Notions of a straightforward pathway to modernity are all the more difficult to sustain in the case of Southeast Asia. Even though the region is still far less researched than Europe or Africa, the evidence suggests that when anatomically modern humans entered ‘Sundaland’dthe vast land mass created by sea-level lowering that linked much of what is now Island Southeast Asia to the mainland in the Late Pleistocene (Voris, 2000)dit was inhabited by at least one other species of Homo, H. floresiensis (Morwood et al., 2004, 2005), and perhaps H. erectus (Swisher et al., 1996; Dennell, 2005; but see Grün and Thorne, 1997; Storm et al., 2005). The remains of H. floresiensis are reported to be associated with stone technologies that have some of the characteristics of the European Upper Paleolithic (Morwood et al., 2005; Brumm et al., 2006). As Trinkaus’ (2005) recent review of the fossil evidence for early modern humans demonstrates, discussions of the development of modernity should now insist on greater scrutiny of the evidence on a siteby-site basis to establish secure associations between the archaeology and the hominins. This paper presents one such investigation. The Great Cave of Niah is one of a system of enormous caverns on the northern edge of the Gunong Subis, a limestone massif on the coastal plain of Sarawak (East Malaysia) in northern Borneo (Wilford, 1964; Fig. 1). The West Mouth is situated ca. 15 km from the South China Sea, with its entrance lip at ca. 50 m above sea level (3 490 0900 N, 113 460 4200 E). A campaign of major excavations was conducted by Tom and Barbara Harrisson in the 1950s and 1960s immediately inside several of the entrances, especially in the West Mouth (Harrisson, 1957, 1958a, 1958b, 1959a, 1959b, 1965, 1972). The find that brought the excavations to international attention was the discovery in February 1958 of an anatomically modern human skull, the so-called ‘Deep Skull’ (Brothwell, 1960; Fig. 2). Charcoal collected near its location the previous year yielded an uncalibrated (but corrected for Suess effect: Vogel and Waterbolk, 1963) radiocarbon date of 39,820 1,012 BP (GrN-1339C). Another date of 41,720 1,012 BP (GrN-1338C) was originally published by de Vries and Waterbolk (1958), which was also influential, but subsequently found to be a mixture of samples and regarded by de Vries as invalid (Krigbaum, 2001). In the 1950s and 1960s, these were the earliest dates for anatomically modern human remains anywhere in the world (Harrisson, 1959a). 245 on al co p y G. Barker et al. / Journal of Human Evolution 52 (2007) 243e261 pe rs Fig. 1. The location of Niah Cave in Island Southeast Asia at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) of the Late Pleistocene, with sea levels ca. 120 m lower than today, with no allowance for tectonically-induced changes (redrawn with changes from Voris, 2000). Inset: interior view of the West Mouth (ca. 150 m wide and ca. 75 m high)dthe archaeological zone is in the top right-hand corner (Photograph: G. Barker). ca. 5,000e2,500 years ago. Since these excavations, Niah’s West Mouth has been regarded as pre-eminent in the archaeology of Island Southeast Asia for the length and significance of its occupation sequence (e.g., Bellwood, 1997). Although the Harrissons and their collaborators published numerous interim reports and specialist papers, they never published a final comprehensive report on the site with detailed consideration of the evidence of the stratigraphic Au th or 's The Deep Skull was found in a trial trench (‘EE’ in the Harrisson excavation system, but referred to by them as ‘Hell’) excavated a few meters east of the cave lip and a few meters south of a rock overhang in the northwest corner of the West Mouth (Fig. 3). The Harrisson excavations also found evidence for the subsequent human use of this part of the West Mouth in the later Pleistocene and early Holocene, the latter including hundreds of ‘Neolithic’ burials dating to Fig. 2. The ‘Deep Skull’: (left) at the moment of its discovery in 1958; (right) after consolidation, next to a modern human skull (Left photograph with permission of Sarawak Museums; right photograph: J. Krigbaum). 246 al co p y G. Barker et al. / Journal of Human Evolution 52 (2007) 243e261 in the Hell Trench area that tended to be defined in terms of color: ‘yellow clay’; ‘pink-red silts’ with significant incorporation of ‘clay lumps’; ‘pink and white’; and ‘bone under ash’ (Harrisson, 1961). These imprecise and unclear terms were used to describe the section in each locality, but no overall lithostratigraphy was developed from them. Rather, T. Harrisson believed that the site’s stratigraphy could be understood through the slow and incremental accumulation of airfall guano and other residual materials including human and other biological remains (Gilbertson et al., 2005). The new investigations (Barker et al., 2002; Gilbertson et al., 2005; Stephens et al., 2005) have: established the principal features of the geomorphologic/stratigraphic succession and have demonstrated that it is radically different in nature and origins to that described by the original excavators; accurately located the main archaeological layers; provided a new radiocarbon chronology; related these findings to each other and to the key artifactual, faunal, and botanical remains preserved in the Harrisson Archive in Sarawak Museum. The field mapping and section logging have employed the lithofacies concept of Reading (1996), which recognizes that distinct bodies of sediment can be distinguished on the basis of their lithology and geometry. These properties reflect the geomorphic processes and depositional environment, and mean that deposits with similar characteristics may have formed at different times, and similar types of deposit or depths within a sequence do not necessarily imply similarities in age. Likewise, considerable attention was given to interpolating the geometry of deposits, as well as the contacts between lithofacies, to facilitate the recognition of episodes of deposition, erosion, deformation, and soil formation. Following the success of three initial Accelerated Mass Spectrometry (AMS) dates on charcoal obtained using the ABOX method of pre-treatment (Bird et al., 1999), the Oxford Au th or 's pe rs locations of the Deep Skull and related finds. One suspicion sustained through the decades since has been that the Deep Skull might be intrusive from one of the later ‘Neolithic’ burials (e.g., Kennedy, 1979; Bulbeck, 1982; Solheim, 1983; Bellwood, 1997; Wolpoff, 1999; Storm, 2001). The absence of detailed published information on the paleogeography, stratigraphic relationships, paleontology, and archaeology of the cave-entrance sequence also inhibited the interpretation of the large archive of archaeological remains from the Harrisson excavations. Published results based on a later small-scale excavation (Majid, 1982) meant that a greater understanding of the site was disseminated, and this work became the principal point of reference on Niah in the wider literature, but it also indicated that some pivotal issues remained unresolved. In 2000, a renewed program of fieldwork under the auspices of the Sarawak Museum was initiated within and around Niah to establish the cave’s complex history. The work has involved a comprehensive site-reconstruction based on surviving sequences and the extensive materials collected during the Harrisson excavations (Barker et al., 2002; Barker, 2005; Gilbertson et al., 2005). This paper reports our findings regarding the Pleistocene stratigraphy of the West Mouth and the antiquity of the Deep Skull, and provides insights into the character of early modern human activity at Niah through analysis of associated evidence. on Fig. 3. Looking west over the Hell Trench (covered by the modern shelter visible in the lower foreground) to the cave rampart, with the rock overhang on the right; this zone was the focus of Pleistocene human occupation in the West Mouth excavated by the Harrissons (Photograph: G. Barker). The Pleistocene stratigraphy of the West Mouth of Niah Great Cave Most of the sediments in the archaeological zone of the West Mouth of the Great Cave were removed by the original excavations, notably at the exact location of the find spot of the Deep Skull. The unpublished records suggest that the excavators recognized four recurrent types of ‘soils’ (deposits) 247 G. Barker et al. / Journal of Human Evolution 52 (2007) 243e261 charcoal in the Harrison Excavation Archive. The locations of the archaeological faces (sections) from which the new charcoal samples were taken are identified in Fig. 4, and the locations of the sample points in the Hell Trench sections are shown in Fig. 5. The dates listed in Table 1 are shown as both uncalibrated and calibrated, the latter calculated using the Fairbanks’_0805 methodology derived from coral dating (Fairbanks et al., 2005), though it should be noted that there is no general agreement on the calibration of ages greater than 26 cal. kyrs BP, and that the general applicability of the Fairbanks calibration has been questioned (e.g., Reimer et al., 2006). co p y Radiocarbon Laboratory has dated a series of charcoal samples from the Niah Pleistocene sediments using different pre-treatments, including the ABOX method, on sub-samples of each sample. Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating was also attempted, but the guano-rich sediments proved unsuitable with present approaches (Stephens et al., in press; Stephens, 2004). Two new Uranium-series (U-series) age-determinations of bone fragments from the Deep Skull are also reported here. The radiocarbon dates obtained by the project relevant to the Pleistocene occupation discussed in this paper are listed in Table 1. Some of them have been obtained from charcoal collected in the field, others from Table 1 Niah Cave Project radiocarbon dates on charcoal and (below) original Gröningen dates on charcoal from Late Pleistocene sediments in the West Mouth, Niah Great Cave 3132 3131 3134(1) 3134(2) 3140 3143 3158 Litho-facies 2 ‘hearth’ Litho-facies 2 ‘hearth’ 96e9900 99e10200 105e10800 108e11100 111e11400 114e11700 111e11400 48e6000 48e6000 72e9600 120e12300 1066 1067 1057 72e7800 2096 2085 2075 2078 2079 1015 1020 1027 10600 HELL HELL HELL 1 th Au HELL ABOX ABOX ABOX ABOX ABOX ABOX ABOX ABOX ABOX ABOX ABOX ABOX ABOX ABOX ABOX ABOX ABOX ABOX ABOX ABOX ABOX ABOX ABOX ABOX A-B-A A-B-A ABOX ABOX ABOX A-B-A A-B-A A-B-A ABOX Age (BP) uncalibrated Age (BP) calibrated4 Niah-312 OxA-V-2057-27 OxA-V-2059-11 OxA-V-2057-28 OxA-V-2057-29 OxA-V-2057-30 OxA-V-2057-31 Niah-310 Niah-311 OxA-15621 OxA-15622 OxA-15623 OxA-15624 OxA-15625 OxA-15626 OxA-15126 OxA-15627 OxA-15628 OxA-15629 OxA-15630 OxA-V-2076-13 OxA-V-2076-14 OxA-V-2076-15 OxA-15164 OxA-11302 OxA-11303 OxA-V-2077-7 OxA-V-2077-8 OxA-V-2077-9 OxA-11549 OxA-11550 OxA-11034 OxA-V-2076-16 40,100 550 44,250 650 34,880 390 34,000 270 44,100 700 44,100 700 45,900 800 42,490 600 41,690 600 42,550 500 34,180 230 39,750 450 33,940 230 42,650 500 42,850 500 35,000 400 15,365 60 15,485 65 43,400 700 41,200 400 37,800 320 36,960 300 44,750 650 36,470 250 33,790 330 29,070 220 17,770 65 21,360 90 20,480 90 8,630 45 19,650 90 27,960 200 35,690 280 44,312 404 Outside calibration 40,349 561 39,136 567 Outside calibration Outside calibration Outside calibration 46,100 560 45,381 555 46,159 467 39,431 450 44,097 436 39,044 535 42,646 463 46,417 457 40,498 562 18,631 54 18,723 79 46,933 901 44,941 329 42,429 203 41,935 193 Outside calibration 41,648 163 38,781 690 34,028 501 21,187 98 25,670 186 24,403 104 9,562 37 23,573 111 32,695 180 41,179 199 al 26.1 26.2 26.2 26.2 26.2 26.2 26.2 1.3 1.3 HP/10b HP/10b HP/10b HP/10b HP/10b HP/10b HE/11 E/B2b E/B2b E/B2b HS/3 3.1 3.1 3.1 W/E2 2.1 2.1 2.1 8.1 8.1 10.1 10.1 12.1 H19 Lab. Code3 on 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Protocol rs Context pe Section2 or 's Number1 Context and comment5 Lab. code Age (BP) uncalibrated Age (BP) calibrated ‘Bone under ash,’ but in reality a mixture of two samples (GrO 1333 and GrO 1339); this date is rejected ‘Bone under ash’ ‘Bone under ash’ ‘Bone under ash’ GrN-1338C; formerly Gro-1338 41,720 1000 45,278 816 GrN 1339C; formerly GRO-1339 GrN 1158C, formerly Gro-1158: GrN-1159C, formerly Gro-1159 38,820 1000 32,870 700 18,180 190 44,034 819 37,793 871 21,750 300 Dates 10e20, 24, and 33 are from charcoal samples in the Harrisson Excavation Archive identified to a Harrisson grid, lithofacies, and depth. See Fig. 4 for location of main sections. 3 ‘Niah’ dates were range-finding ABOX dates by M. Bird at ANU Canberra; OxA dates are normal AMS dates; OxA-V dates were obtained using three comparative pre-treatments including ABOX. 4 The calibration uses the Fairbanks’_0805 methodology derived from coral dating (Fairbanks et al., 2005; but see Reimer et al., 2006). 5 Original Gröningen dates from charcoal samples collected shortly before the Deep Skull’s discovery (see text for discussion). 2 248 on al co p y G. Barker et al. / Journal of Human Evolution 52 (2007) 243e261 rs Fig. 4. The distribution of fauna in the basal spits of the Harrisson grid identified as their ‘bone under ash layer,’ and the location of the main sections from which radiocarbon dates have been obtained (see Table 1). ‘NCP’ pollen samples are those taken by the current project. Au th or 's pe The Late Pleistocene sediments into which the Hell Trench was excavated filled a natural linear hollow aligned parallel to the cave entrance. This opened northwards into a wider, shallow, spoon-shaped depression between the cave entrance rampart (a bedrock ridge overlain by colluvial sediments including fragments of a fallen speleothem tower) and the main cone of guano that fills the interior of the West Mouth to a depth of >10 m (Fig. 3). The main deposit filling this basin, Lithofacies 2 (Figs. 5 and 6), with which the Deep Skull is most closely associated, is a series of waterlain silts and sands ca. 2.5 m thick and variously dark brown/brown/ strong brown (Munsell soil color 7.5 YR 3/4e4/4e4/6) in color. These deposits are the ‘dark pink,’ ‘pink silts,’ and ‘red-brown silts’ of Harrisson (1961). The particle size distribution, sedimentary structures, and micromorphology show that Lithofacies 2 was formed by running water deposition interrupted by local erosion forming linear scour channels up to 0.5 m deep. Evidence of bioturbation and clay skin development indicates periods of desiccation, and the diagenetic gypsum suggests that at least subsequent to deposition, a hot moist environment prevailed for substantial periods of time. The number of sediment fills observed (surviving) indicates that the site flooded on at least eight occasions, and the presence of mass flow units indicates small scale instability generating local mass movement (Gilbertson et al., 2005); six such episodes are indicated in Fig. 5. We obtained ABOX-AMS dates of 42,490 600 14C years BP (46,100 600 cal. years BP; Niah-310) and 41,690 600 14C years BP (46,381 555 cal. years BP; Niah-311) from charcoal samples taken at the top of the exposure of Lithofacies 2 (Fig. 5: Section 1.3). The channel-fill sequences of Lithofacies 2 are inter-bedded with colluvial deposits sloping down from the cave entrance rampart, designated Lithofacies 2C. These deposits slope down from the cave entrance rampart, have a thickness that exceeds 2.5 m, and continue to form at the present day. They are typically clay-rich and yellow brown to olive brown in color (2.5 Y 6/4e6/6) and appear to be T. Harrisson’s ‘yellow clays.’ The relationships between Lithofacies 2 and 2C were established in particular from new excavation of one of the surviving Harrisson baulks, HP/6 (Fig. 5: Sections 26.1/2; Fig. 7). The lower part of the HP/6 sequence is characterized by a series of inter-cutting channels and fills in which Lithofacies 2 and 2C interdigitate. Interbedded within the Lithofacies 2C colluvium are multiple discrete organic-rich layers (designated Lithofacies 2Cg) that contain ash, charcoal lumps, many fragments of animal bone, and occasional stone artifacts. The sequences also contain evidence of bioturbation. These layers are important data sources for the accounts of the subsistence practices reported below and can be equated with the ‘boneunder-ash’ deposit described by Harrisson and later workers, the estimated extent of which is shown in Fig. 4. They are mainly associated with ephemeral land surfaces formed on the base of the linear hollow in which Hell Trench was excavated and on the surrounding slopes leading down to it. Their archaeological contents provide evidence of episodic visits to the cave entrance by humans (Stephens et al., 2005). Importantly, radiocarbon dates from charcoal collected from the 249 rs on al co p y G. Barker et al. / Journal of Human Evolution 52 (2007) 243e261 pe Fig. 5. The stratigraphy of the Hell Trench projected onto a west-east transect across the Hell Trench. Section 26.1 was observed on the north side of the 1-foot thick HP/6 baulk, Section 26.2 was on its western side; the site records of this information have been reversed and joined with the section drawings of Sections 1.3 and 1.4, which were observed from the south. See Fig. 4 for the location of the sections and Table 1 for the full details of radiocarbon dates. Au th or 's surviving exposures indicate an episodic accumulation of these organic-rich layers over the period ca. 46e34 14C kyrs BP, or ca. 46e40 cal. kyrs BP (Table 1: nos. 1e7; Fig. 5). There are a few apparent date inversions at the top of the sequence, but these are not an unexpected feature in this type of environment given the evidence of periodic incision, mass movement, and small-scale bioturbation. Fossil burrows from paleo-surfaces are evident within Lithofacies 2 and 2C, and modern burrowing activity of digger wasps is visible at several exposed surfaces. A sequence of radiocarbon dates obtained on archived charcoal from the HP/10 trench in Hell (Table 1: nos. 10e15) and additional spot-dating from other Hell contexts (Table 1: nos. 16e20) confirm that residual evidence of human occupation in the order of ca. 35 14C kyrs BP or ca. 39 cal. kyrs BP both overlays and was, in places, subsequently overlain by material dating from the phase of site-use suggested by the group of earlier radiocarbon dates. It is possible that some of the earlier remains, eroded out of deposits that accumulated along the cave entrance rampart, were subsequently re-deposited in the linear hollow within the cave. The zone of human activity at the West Mouth, as identified from the frequencies of vertebrate bone, mollusc shells, and charcoal analyzed in the Harrisson Archive, appears to have extended from the area of the Hell Trench northwards to beneath the rock overhang, corresponding with the shape of the spoon-shaped basin (Fig. 4). In confirmation of this, interbedded channel fill and colluvial sediments in the area of the rock shelter contain further evidence for human occupation dating to ca. 45e36 14C kyrs BP or ca. 45e41 cal. kyrs BP (Table 1: nos. 21e24; Fig. 4; Section 3.1). The grid locations of the archive materials indicate that this zone may also have extended several meters to the south, though this has yet to be confirmed in the field. A 1.2 m deep trench, excavated underneath the HP/6 baulk after its removal, located further colluvial and channel fill units attributable to Lithofacies 2 and 2C (Fig. 5: Section 62.4), together with animal bone fragments, some indicators of in situ burning, and a humanly-struck stone flake, raising the possibility of human presence in the cave pre-dating our earliest radiocarbon dates. Whilst Lithofacies 2C (colluvial sediments) continues to form at the cave mouth to this day, the deposition of Lithofacies 2 appears to have ended with the impact of a small, shallow, mudflow of wet guano (Lithofacies 3 and 3R) from upslope within the cave interior to the east (Figs. 5 and 6). This very distinctive unit is clearly Tom Harrisson’s ‘pink and white soil,’ that he mistakenly thought had formed at a slow and constant rate by airfall of guano from bats and birds together with 250 rs on al co p y G. Barker et al. / Journal of Human Evolution 52 (2007) 243e261 pe Fig. 6. Summary plan of the sediments within the archaeological reserve at the northwest corner of the West Mouth of Niah Great Cave. (7.5 YR 6/3), and its characteristic white marks are secondary growths of gypsum, not fragments of roof limestone as Harrisson supposed (Stephens et al., 2005). These lubricated guanobased materials formed a mudflow that pushed into, under, and Au th or 's fragments of cave roof throughout the period of development of the Late Pleistocene Hell Trench sequence. The matrix in fact varies from pale-brown (10 YR 7/4e6e4) to light yellowishbrown (10 YR 6/4) to brown (7.5 YR 5/4) and light brown Fig. 7. The excavation of the HP/6 baulk in the Hell Trench (looking south). The visible face is Section 26.1. The archaeologist is excavating one of the more ashand organic-rich layers associated with human occupation material that form part of the overall body of colluvial sediments (Lithofacies 2C) that dip east into the cave from the cave rampart; another organic-rich layer is visible as the white smears in the baulk behind him (Photograph: G. Barker). 251 G. Barker et al. / Journal of Human Evolution 52 (2007) 243e261 on al co p y Deep Skull was found on 7th February 1958, a few inches below the base of the 1954 trench (Fig. 2). The Deep Skull is a partial cranium that includes a principal calotte (parietals and frontal) and lower facial skeleton (maxilla) including two molar teeth. Additional elements include a right occipital/parietal and a portion of the basicranium. The bone is highly fragile and not fossilized. Much of the skull was coated in shellac preservative upon discovery. The partial fusion of the skull base and the extreme attrition of the right first molar suggest that the skull belongs to an individual in their late teens to mid-twenties, and given this near-adult or adult age, from its size and gracility, the individual can probably be sexed as female (Birdsell, 1979; Krigbaum and Datan, 1999). Although the cranium is gracile with thin cranial bone, traits such as squarish orbits, broad nasal aperture, moderate prognathism, and large sundadont molars support its designation as a member of the Pleistocene population of Southeast Asia ancestral to present-day Andaman Islanders, Negrito populations in Malaysia and the Philippines, and Australian aborigines (Brothwell, 1960; Howells, 1973; Bulbeck, 1982; Kamminga and Wright, 1988; Brown, 1992; Krigbaum and Datan, 1999). Near the Deep Skull were found an almost complete left femur (Krigbaum and Datan, 1999) and a right proximal tibia fragment (P. Piper and R. Rabett, pers. comm.), almost certainly of the same individual on the basis of their size and epiphyseal fusion stages. A human talus was found in the faunal assemblage sent to Leiden for analysis (Hooijer, 1963). Calculating the Deep Skull’s original location is problematical because the methods used to survey trench, spit, and artifact locations were not described explicitly by the excavators, and the original field-notes for this part of the excavation are no longer available. The original location has three properties that have had to be determined: its original spatial position; its original depth below the ground surface in relation to the Harrisson height datum(s) and modern site datum; and its lithostratigraphic relationships. The original spatial position has never been disputed and is readily recognized in the remaining trenches (Fig. 8); together with other recognizable features, it is precisely shown on detailed site plans and in excavation photographs. The location was also confirmed in the field from exact guidance provided by local people who helped in the original excavations. We have been able to estimate the Deep Skull’s original depth with respect to the Harrissons’ datum and our modern cave height datum to an accuracy of ca. 20 cm. This has been achieved by triangulation between locations reported and/or illustrated in the original excavation archive and our own examination and surveys of the exposures in the Hell Trench. In reporting the skull depth as 106e11000 below the ground surface, T. Harrisson acknowledged that there was a level of uncertainty in such calculations, which he estimated as 6e900 (ca. 15e23 cm) (Harrisson, 1959a). In an unpublished letter to Kenneth Oakley (March 18, 1959), Barbara Harrisson described how at the moment of discovery the top of the skull lay ‘‘face downwards’’ at 109e11000 , with the dentition at 10600 , the find being protected below ‘‘an overhanging rock’’ or 's pe rs over the existing deposits of Lithofacies 2, perhaps as a result of instability caused by prolonged very intense localized wetting, or by the progressive increase in sediment load and surface slope angle caused by continuous deposition. It is possible that a geomorphic (channelling) or tectonic (earthquake) trigger may have initiated this movement (Dykes, in press). The lateral impact of the mudflow on Lithofacies 2 generated widespread vertical contacts between the two units, with small lenses of Lithofacies 2 becoming incorporated as fragments or streamers within Lithofacies 3. Nevertheless, in the Hell Trench the mudflow does not appear to have deformed components of either Lithofacies 2 or 2C more than 30e 50 cms in front of their contact with it: the original sedimentary structures of Lithofacies 2 and 2C remain well-defined (Fig. 5). The age of this mudflow was certainly later than the Niah-310 and Niah-311 dates and is younger, perhaps by very little time, than the Deep Skull, which may have been slightly displaced by it, as well as being protected by it from subsequent weathering and erosion (Gilbertson et al., 2005). Indeed, the deformation of Lithofacies 2 by the mudflow may have produced a situation whereby the human remains were protected from subsequent stream erosion or shallow bioturbation, processes which at this locality would significantly reduce the chances of survival of bone material. Lithofacies 4, the youngest major stratigraphic unit of Pleistocene age, is a silty diamicton, variously yellowish brown to light olive brown (10 YR 5/4e10 YR 4/4 to 2.5 Y 5/4), formed by a mix of colluvial, aeolian, and human transport processes and covering much of the front of the archaeological zone, burying the spoon-shaped hollow. This lithofacies was almost entirely removed by the earlier excavators, but remaining plinths of sediment show that it was associated with much human cultural material including evidence for pit-digging dated to ca. 34e18 14C kyrs BP (ca. 39e21 kyrs cal. BP) (Fig. 4: Sections 2.1 and 8.1; Table 1: nos. 25e29), and midden deposits at the back of the rock overhang dated from ca. 28 14 C kyrs BP (ca. 33 cal. kyrs BP) to the beginning of the Holocene (Fig. 4: Sections 10.1 and 12.1; Table 1: nos. 30e32). The Deep Skull, its location, and antiquity Au th In contrast with the excavation of the first trench at the front of the cave in 1954, the 1957 and 1958 excavations in Hell were progressed with extreme care under the direction of Barbara Harrisson. Though dug in artificial spits rather than by relation to the lithofacies units recognized here, the trenches were only 1’x 1’ (ca. 30 30 cm) or 20 10 (ca. 60 30 cm) in extent, and the spits were only an inch (ca. 2.5 cm) deep; excavation was at a rate of one cubic foot (ca. 27,000 cm3) per 13 hours, compared with an overall average for the excavations of one cubic foot per hour. It is also clear from studies of the records in the Harrisson Excavation Archive that, despite T. Harrisson’s understanding of the cave stratigraphy and within the limits of the spit methodology, excavation was governed by lithological considerations: the excavators followed major deposits with significant cultural refuse such as ash, charcoal, and animal bone. The 252 al co p y G. Barker et al. / Journal of Human Evolution 52 (2007) 243e261 that the first report sent on the day of the skull’s discovery stated that ‘‘the top of a probable human skull [had been unearthed] on top of the reported 40,000 bp C14 layer, at the 106 inch depth,’’ yet the Gröningen samples were purportedly taken from deposits above this find spot. Our current studies demonstrate that there is no guarantee that this was a correct identification of this relationship; compare, for example, numbers 14 and 16 in Table 1. The same need for great caution in inferring or assuming that the depth of a find is a reliable surrogate of its chronometric age in these types of sequences is provided by the clear field evidence of recurrent intra-formational, quasi-linear, fluvial erosion and deposition within Lithofacies 2. We obtained an AMS-ABOX date of 35,690 280 14C years BP (41,179 199 cal. years BP; Table 1: no. 33, OxAV-2076-16) from an archived sample of charcoal in a sample bag labelled in Tom Harrisson’s handwriting ‘‘charcoal, H/ 19, 10600 , from around skull.’’ Reference is made in B. Harrisson’s letter to Oakley of charcoal associated with the Deep Skull, and this may be the origin of the sample, though this cannot be proven. A second date of 35,000 400 14C years BP (40,498 562 cal. years BP; Table 1: no.16, OxA15126) was obtained on another archived sample of charcoal from a trench (HE/11) immediately adjacent to and within a horizontal meter of the Deep Skull location. This date is close in age, though knowing as we now do that the sedimentary units in this area dip from the rampart to the center of the basin, that the ‘bone under ash’ layer accumulated over a considerable period, and that erosion and re-deposition may have taken place, such ‘association’ with the skull should be considered with care. Additional archive materials from Brothwell’s original cleaning of the Deep Skull are presently curated at the Au th or 's pe rs which is illustrated in the photograph of its discovery (Fig. 2, left). Combining details from surviving field-notes and our own survey, we have established that the skull lay approximately 1.16 m to 1.27 m below our modern site datum, though this cannot allow for Harrisson’s margin of error as no documentation exists pertaining to the correction for the quoted depths. In terms of the modern exposures, this depth places the Deep Skull within the volume of space attributed to Lithofacies 2 on the basis of the stratigraphy observed in the modern exposures, and a few centimeters west of a near-vertical contact caused by the lateral impact of Lithofacies 3. The two original Gröningen dates from this part of the excavation were obtained on charcoal collected from the ‘bone under ash’ layer. Harrisson (1959b) states that of these, the ca. 39 14C kyrs BP date was taken from a sample obtained ‘10 inches’ above the basal level of the Deep Skull, and that both appear to have been taken at approximately the 10000 level (Harrisson, 1958b; de Vries and Waterbolk, 1958)dthough, again, we remain hostage to Harrisson’s datum and his margin for error. What was not apparent at the time was that the ‘bone-under-ash layer’ had accumulated episodically over several thousands of years. Presumably the ‘bone under ash’ material looked to the original excavators like a single layer similar in both age and origins throughout the Hell Trench system, but the fact that it was not has been confirmed by our taphonomic analysis of the vertebrate faunal remains collected from it (Rabett et al., 2006). Clearly there was no a priori reason for the excavators to assume that the Deep Skull or components of the ‘bone under ash’ deposit were anything other than the same age as the two original Gröningen dates produced at that time. This may have created subsequent uncertainties. For example, Heimann (1998: 321) relates on Fig. 8. Looking north across the Hell Trench towards the rock overhang. The Deep Skull was located approximately where the horizontal string intersects with the ranging pole. On the northern side, the string is attached to Section 1.3, near where the top monotin sample was taken (the vertical groove) for the pollen diagram shown in Fig. 12. The Harrisson HP/6 baulk was behind the two baulks visible on the left hand side of the trench. The ranging pole is in 20 cm divisions (Photograph: G. Barker). 253 G. Barker et al. / Journal of Human Evolution 52 (2007) 243e261 on al co p y uranium in the groundwater faster than sample APNIAH2, which shows a W-shaped distribution of dates, but a uniform date profile may also be reached after further uptake or leaching of uranium, which would give an erroneous date, so on its own the date should only be taken as provisional. In the case of APNIAH2, however, any further uptake or loss of uranium would disrupt its W-shaped distribution of dates, so we are confident that this bone has taken up uranium under constant conditions. Furthermore, the agreement of the two dates calcuþ5:0 þ3:0 lated using the D-A model, 37:04:7 kyrs and 34:53:0 kyrs (at 2 sigma), gives us greater confidence that the bones have not undergone a complex uranium uptake regime. We therefore feel justified in taking the error-weighted mean of the two þ2:6 results, 35:22:6 calendar years ago, as the best U-series ageestimate of the Deep Skull bone fragments. This error-weighted U-series age estimate is approximately equivalent to the period ca. 33,000e27,500 uncalibrated radiocarbon years before present. However, this younger age may be explained by the fact that the laser ablation method measures the matrix of the bone, which may cause significant interference with low 230U values, as occur in this skull, and such interference cannot be corrected because it is not possible to determine with complete confidence the baseline values. Secondly, bones take up uranium upon burial, and it is not possible to determine with complete security whether this was either early or constantdand different processes would lead to estimations of different ages. Also, the laser ablation method gives a lower 230U signal than the alternative solution-method of Useries dating. Whilst the U-series age-estimates conform to the general predictions of our lithostratigraphic studies, given the reasons listed above and the consistency of the key associated radiocarbon dates, we suspect that the U-series age estimate may be underestimating the antiquity of the Deep Skull. It remains the case that the find spot of the Deep Skull may have originally been located within a channel fill of Lithofacies 2 dated to between ca. 46 and 40 cal. kyrs BP. If similar or 's pe rs Natural History Museum (London). We tried but failed to obtain a date from charcoal extracted from the matrix removed from the cranium. Attempts were made by Tom Stafford (Stafford Research Laboratories) to retrieve bone collagen using two fragments of Deep Skull bone that could not be included in Brothwell’s original reconstruction, but collagen was not present. However, we have been able to obtain Useries dates on two additional bone fragments from Brothwell’s original study of bone already detached from the Deep Skull held in the Natural History Museum, London, using the Diffusion-Adsorption (D-A) model which accounts for the post-depositional uptake of uranium (Millard and Hedges, 1996). The D-A model can be used to predict the uranium history of a bone from the measured distributions (‘profiles’) of U and U-series isotopes across a bone section (Pike et al., 2002, 2005). In cases where the uptake has been monotonic (i.e., where there has been no leaching of uranium) and under relatively constant geochemical conditions, a reliable date can be calculated. Bones that have undergone complex cycles of uptake and loss of uranium cannot be dated, but these regimes are reflected in the shape of the profiles, and the bone can be rejected as unsuitable for dating. Uranium and thorium isotopes were measured by laser ablation multi collector ICP-MS using the method outlined in Pike et al. (2005). Transects from periostial to endostial surfaces were measured using a 120 mm laser spot on freshly broken surfaces. The results (Figs. 9 and 10) show uranium profiles that are uniform, indicating that the bone has reached an equilibrium with the uranium in the groundwater. Both profiles are ‘noisy’ because the samples were not polished to a flat surface in order to minimize damage to them. Both bone samples have date profiles that conform to the criteria given in Pike et al. (2002) for reliable U-series dating, but indicate slightly different uptake behavior. The uniform date profile of APNIAH1 indicates that the sample has reached an equilibrium with the 60,000 0.50 Integrated date 37.0 ± 4.9 ky 50,000 40,000 Au 0.30 30,000 0.20 20,000 Uranium beam (V) 0.40 th Closed system U-series date (years) Closed system date Uranium 0.10 10,000 1.0 mm 0.00 0 –1 –0.8 –0.6 –0.4 –0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 Relative distance to center of bone Fig. 9. Uranium and U-series date profile for Deep Skull fragment APNIAH1. Errors on the individual points are 1s, but the error on the integrated age is at 2s. The integrated 230Th/232Th activity is >50, indicating low levels of detrital contamination. 254 G. Barker et al. / Journal of Human Evolution 52 (2007) 243e261 50,000 0.7 Closed system date Uranium 0.6 Maximum likelihood date 34.5 ± 3 ky 40,000 30,000 0.4 y 25,000 Uranium beam (V) 0.5 35,000 0.3 20,000 15,000 co p Closed system U-series date (years) 45,000 0.2 10,000 0.1 5000 1.0 mm 0 0 –1 –0.8 –0.6 –0.4 –0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 Relative distance to center of bone archived collections were small, under 20 mm, and the assemblage is dominated by small extremities or isolated teeth, a pattern of breakage implying that one important taphonomic process forming this assemblage was localized slope movement. However, surface and fracture edge modification suggests that the material has not been significantly influenced by fluvial erosion or diagenesis, and was buried in rapidlyaccumulating sediments. Clusters of burnt bone indicate either the residues of hearths or dumps of burnt material from hearths. Groups of semi-articulated bones of individual animals and bone fragments with cut marks (Fig. 11) imply discrete in situ butchery events. (Twelve fragments of bone with cut marks were noted in the Hell Trench assemblage, including examples of pig, leaf monkey/macaque, and monitor lizard.) Further differentiation of the character of activity is not possible owing to the constraints imposed upon us by the methodology of the original excavation, although the series of discrete organicrich layers comprising Lithofacies 2Cg suggests that it may have consisted of repeated short-term seasonal occupations. Further evidence for the character of human activity before and broadly contemporaneous with the deposition of the Deep Skull is seen in the presence of burnt soil material (mostly thermally mature amorphous matter, pollen, and vesicular arbuscular mycorrhyza), abundant micro-charcoal (thermally mature plant tissue, cuticles, and wood), and a significant peak in magnetic susceptibility, all indicating intense local burning. Analysis of a sediment sample from Deep Skull matrix collected during Brothwell’s original cleaning has yielded identical evidence of strong scorching. pe rs climatic and depositional environments continued within the cave entrance at the time of the death of the person, the human remains could have become incorporated within such channelfill sediments soon after erosion of the channel in materials that were visually similar to those into which the channel had been eroded, but significantly older. The previous total excavation of the find site makes it impossible to examine this possibility. Nevertheless, it is clear that the Deep Skull is not a Neolithic intrusion but can be reliably associated with the period of time ca. 41e34 14C kyrs BP (ca. 45e39 kyrs cal. BP), a period preceded by more than 5,000 years of earlier human activity at the cave entrance. on al Fig. 10. Uranium and U-series date profile for Deep Skull fragment APNIAH2. The solid line shows the maximum likelihood date using uranium uptake according to the diffusion absorption model. Errors on the individual points are 1s, but the error on the D-A age is given at 95% confidence. The integrated 230Th/232Th activity is >50, indicating low levels of detrital contamination. or 's The character of human activity in the West Mouth Au th The unpublished evidence of the archive combined with the inferences made in the field indicate that the Deep Skull and other human remains were associated with an accumulation of materials indicative of human activity, and these deposits are part of Lithofacies 2C in both baulk HP/6 and under the rock overhang (Fig. 5). An aggregate analysis of the macrovertebrate remains has been completed, including element and taxon identification, natural and anthropic surface modification, and, for the more abundant species, population structure (Rabett et al., 2006). (The extensive microvertebrate assemblage has yet to be fully analysed, but constitutes in large part cave-dwelling species.) Plotting the changing densities of the 10,000þ fragments of macrovertebrate remains from these deposits shows that they accumulated in a sinuous line of shallow ‘hollows’ more or less along the channel and parallel to the cave rampart (Fig. 4). This tends to confirm the interpretation suggested above that the human remains and associated artifacts were washed into the channel formed of scour-hollows and incorporated and preserved in the channelfill sediments. Most of the bone fragments studied from the Environment and foraging strategies The changing nature of the regional climate and biogeography during this part of the Late Pleistocene is suggested by studies of pollen in Core 17964 from the South China Sea 255 G. Barker et al. / Journal of Human Evolution 52 (2007) 243e261 which was beside the two AMS-ABOX dates of 42,490 600 C years BP (46,100 600 cal. years BP; Niah-310) and 41,690 600 14C years BP (46,381 555 cal. years BP; Niah-311) (Fig. 8). The pollen and spores divide into three broad ecological groups (Fig. 12): (1) mangrove taxa (mostly Avicennia), common only in the upper section of the diagram, and perhaps reflecting a short-lived approach by the sea in the now-buried valley of the Sungai (River) Niah; (2) forest taxa, a wide variety of trees and lianas including Podocarpus, Fagaceae, Dodonea, Palmae, Casuarina, Symplocos, Elaeocarpus, Santiria, and Oleaceae, indicative of a predominantly dry forest sometimes of decidedly montane aspect, and different from the present-day and Holocene lowland wet-tropical forest; and (3) open and disturbed ground taxa, mostly Poaceae and Cyperaceae, with some Asteraceae, Lactucae, Plantago, Albizia, Macaranga, and Ochnaceae, reflecting savannah-type landscapes and perhaps regenerating woodland. The pollen diagram shows marked cyclicity, with two clear episodes of forest development and recession to savannah-type vegetation, with intermittent evidence for wetter conditions. Although the overall composition of the vertebrate remains reveals evidence for discrete ‘events’ as stated earlier, we cannot allocate such events to particular time horizons within the early occupation period, so hunting and processing strategies can only be modelled at an aggregate level. Allowing for this caveat, the vertebrate bone data indicate overall procurement focused especially on a range of terrestrial and terrestrial-arboreal animals, with pigs (likely Sus barbatus: Medway, 1978) and primates (principally leaf-eating monkeys and macaques) figuring strongly (Table 2). The population age-structure of the pig remains does not show any clear bias to a particular age-class, suggesting the use of nonselective technologies, unlike the prime-adult selective profiles produced by most local ethnographically recorded approaches to hunting this animal (Cranbrook and Labang, 2003). Trapping (leg-snaring, for example), a nonselective method used locally today (Alvard, 2000), is one method that could explain this archaeological signature. Molluscs were likely collected from the local rivers and swamps, and simple hand-capture could have been used to take certain terrestrial game such as monitor lizards and turtles. Although the former is found in cave environments, the presence of a varanid (monitor lizard) femur among the cut-marked remains in the Hell bone assemblage indicates that this reptile was also butchered and presumably consumed by human groups visiting the cave. Stone points have not been found at Niah, and currently we assume that stone was mainly used for making procurement tools based on organic materials such as wood, bamboo, and rattan. A usewear and residue analysis of 80 pieces of flaked stone of Late Pleistocene age in the Harrisson Archive indicates that 20 (25%) had been used on a hard or siliceous material such as bamboo or rattan. Well-preserved plant fibers adhering to the working edge of one of these flakes were probably from palm wood, and 12 (15%) of the tools had been used to process soft plant. By the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene at Niah, the surviving organic technology includes numerous bone and cartilaginous points which have rs on al co p y 14 pe Fig. 11. Examples of ca. 46e39 cal. kyrs BP food remains in the West Mouth: (left) Cercopithecidae (monkey) left proximal femur with multiple cut marks on the underside of the femoral neck; (right) starch grain from the sago palm (probably Eugeissona utilis or Cartyota spp.) on the working surface of a flaked stone tool; (bottom) parenchyma tissue of Dioscorea hispida (Photographs L to R: R. Rabett, H. Barton, V. Paz). Au th or 's by Sun et al. (2000). Those investigations indicate that during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) the environment on the exposed Sunda Shelf to the north and west of Niah Cave was typically one of humid lowland rainforest, periodically marked by phases of expanding tropical montane forest taxa indicative of cooler pulses. The exact proximity of Niah to the coast in the period ca. 50e30,000 years ago, prior to the LGM, remains uncertain, but must have been some 10s of km distant (see Farrant et al., 1995; Voris, 2000; Yokoyama et al., 2001; Gilbertson et al., 2005; Fig. 1). The lack of evidence within the faunal assemblages for the use of marine resources (fish bones, for example, appear to be exclusively of freshwater taxa) suggests limited access to the coastline. The winter monsoon may have been stronger than today, resulting in more marked seasonality in the lowland forests that persisted in this part of north Borneo (Kershaw et al., 2001; GathorneHardy et al., 2002; Bird et al., 2005). Current understanding of the paleoclimate at the regional level is broadly consistent with the evidence of the Lithofacies 2 sediments, indicating conditions at times significantly drier than today but punctuated by occasional episodes of high rainfall. A very changeable regime is also suggested by the palynology of a sediment column taken from Lithofacies 2, the top of 256 G. Barker et al. / Journal of Human Evolution 52 (2007) 243e261 Table 2 Vertebrate fauna (excluding fish and human remains) from the Hell Trench, spits 8700 e11100 , West Mouth, Niah Cave. The ecological descriptors are approximate only. (NISP ¼ number of identifiable specimens) Terrestrial and arboreal Ursidae Viverridae Serpentes Cercopithecidae 138 348 574 11.38 28.69 47.32 1 15 41 196 0.08 1.24 3.38 16.16 253 20.85 Squirrels Birds Orangutan 2 64 72 138 0.16 5.28 5.94 11.38 Turtles and Tortoises 243 20.03 Sun bear Civet cats Snakes Leaf monkeys and Macaques Total Arboreal Sciuridae Aves Ponginae Total Terrestrial and aquatic Trionychidae, Bataguridae, Testudinidae Crocodylidae Total Total NISP/% Crocodile 5 248 1213 0.41 20.45 99.99 th or 's manufacturing and utilization characteristics closely comparable to ethnographic and experimental projectile points (Rabett, 2005). Though similar artifacts have not been found in the earlier (>46e39 cal. kyrs BP) occupation debris, the presence of taxa of large freshwater fish, such as cyprinids and catfish, and the comparatively high incidence of animals with arboreal-habitat preferences, such as orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), imply that hunting technologies in this period too had the capability of taking game from non-terrestrial habitats. Given the evidence for projectile technologies definitely being used at Niah in the post-LGM Pleistocene, this fact raises the realistic possibility of a greater antiquity for such technologies in this part of Borneo. Botanical remains (parenchyma, starch granules) indicate the exploitation of nearby rainforest habitats for a variety of roots and tubers, fruit, nuts, and the pith of sago palms (Barton, 2005; Paz, 2005; Table 3; Fig. 11). Interpretation is comparatively restricted by the limited knowledge of the taphonomy of these small biological finds. Photographs taken before the excavation (Wilford, 1964) indicate that source plants for these microfossils did not occur at this location before its excavationda function of the limitations of the light as much as precipitation inside the cave entrance. Such Au y 0.08 0.08 0.25 0.49 0.82 0.91 1.57 3.05 co p Varanidae Suidae Total 1 1 3 6 10 11 19 37 al Otters, Weasels, Martins Malay tapir Cattle Cats Mouse deer Sambar deer, Muntjac Porcupine Pangolin, extinct Giant Pangolin Monitor lizard Pig %NISP rs Terrestrial Mustelidae Tapiridae Bovidae Felidae Tragulidae Cervidae Hystricidae Manidae NISP on Common name pe Family microfossils were very rare or absent in the pollen calibration samples taken from cave surface guano by Hunt and Rushworth (2005). The botanical remains extracted from sediment samples were all taken from slope deposits that yielded evidence of human activity (Stephens et al., 2005). For these reasons, the parenchyma and starch grains in the sediments are interpreted as likely to be the result of human introduction to the site, a hypothesis supported by the fact that similar evidence has been found on the working surfaces of the stone tools from the Hell Trench (Fig. 11). This evidence indicates that the Niah foragers had the requisite knowledge and technology to neutralize successfully several types of plant toxin. The yam Dioscorea hispida, for example, represents a potentially large source of carbohydrate for rainforest foragers and can be collected with ease (Eder, 1978). However, an uncooked piece the size of an apple is enough to kill an adult (Burkill, 1966; Coursey, 1967). Traditional methods for leaching out the highly toxic hydrocyanic acid in the nuts of the tree Pangium edule include burying the ripe fruits or boiled seeds in a pit for 10e14 days and then boiling them, or burying the seeds with ash for up to 40 days (Burkill, 1966; Ochse, 1980). A series of inter-cutting pits (Fig. 13) dated to ca. 34e18 14C kyrs BP (ca. 39e21 kyrs cal. BP) (Table 1: nos. 25e29) might be evidence of the pit method of nut detoxification at Niah, because nut fragments mixed with ash were found in quantity in the pit fills, together with charred nut fragments. It is clear that during those periods when lowland forests and mangroves were present in the vicinity of the Great Cave, they did not represent a ‘barrier’ to occupation by Pleistocene foragers (see Headland, 1987; Bailey et al., 1989; Bailey and Headland, 1991; contra Townsend, 1990; Colinvaux and Bush, 1991) but were parts of a spectrum of resources to be exploited. The phytolith assemblage extracted from the sediment column providing the pollen diagram illustrated in Fig. 12 provides a picture of the vegetation in near proximity to the cave entrance. Whilst the depositional agents of the phytoliths, or the original plant materials, are unknown in detail, complex plant-use strategies are indicated by the diversity of the arboreal component and the high percentage of large tissue fragments that are likely to represent both food plants and organic material culture. Habitat modification may also have included forest burning. Very high frequencies of Justicia (Acanthaceae) pollen occur and are always coincident with palynological evidence for the presence of forest phases. Today, Justicia is the first colonist following fire in the Niah National Park forests and in the mangroves near the coast. This modern relationship suggests that the high instances of Justicia may reflect fires in the landscape in the area around the Gunong Subis. Although natural burning can be a feature in Pleistocene and Holocene Bornean forest environments (Goldammer and Seibert, 1989), the scale and pattern of occurrence suggested by the Justicia curve, which coincides with the expansion of forest taxa, suggest an additional, probably anthropic, variable. If this were the case, such deliberate burning would have enhanced existing open or disturbed areas within the forest, 257 G. Barker et al. / Journal of Human Evolution 52 (2007) 243e261 Table 3 Plant remains from the Hell Trench, Niah Cave West Mouth Birah/keladi Taro/keladi elim. Araceae possibly Araceae Yam cf. Dioscorea hispida Dennst. Gadong/wild yam Dioscorea sp. Unidentified tuber Palm Palm pith Sago Rattan/bamboo Fruit /nut Prob. Moraceae Fruit parenchyma Pangium edule Reinw., ex Bl. Breadfruit family Kepayang Habitat starch granules charred parenchyma sediment sediment/flotation lowland rainforest/swamp forest lowland rainforest/wet swamp, cultivation up to 2700 m charred parenchyma charred parenchyma sediment/flotation sediment/flotation charred parenchyma sediment/flotation starch granules parenchyma sediment sediment/flotation starch granules sediment/tool bast fibers/phytolith tool exocarp parenchyma exocarp flotation flotation excavation Seeds Fabaceae Urticaceae Apiaceae Legume family Nettle family Carrot family on exocarp exocarp charred seed seed seed rs Large nut fragment Nut fragment Recovery methody y Aroid Alocasia longiloba complex cf. Colocasia elim esculenta (L.) Schott Type of material lowland rainforest/shaded locations, up to 850 m co p Common name al Family/species lowland rainforest lowland jungle/riversides/ravines, up to 1000 m flotation flotation flotation flotation flotation Au th or 's pe y Recovery method: sediment ¼ heavy liquid separation from sediment; flotation ¼ manual water flotation; excavation ¼ macro-plant recovered during excavation; tool ¼ organic residue on tool surface. Fig. 12. Palynological evidence for vegetation change in the general vicinity of the West Mouth for the period >ca. 46 to ca. 39 cal. kyrs BP. The age of the top of the pollen sequence is fixed by the Section 1.3 ABOX-AMS dates (Niah-310 and Niah-311); the bottom is currently undated. that in turn would have provided good habitats for tubers and other food plants and for hunting and trapping animals attracted to such clearings. The Niah evidence is consistent with abnormally high numbers of microscopic charcoal particles after 50,000 years recovered from ocean cores in the Sulu Sea north of Borneo (Fig. 1) and before 30,000 years at Lake Sentarum in West Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo), both cases interpreted as registering the arrival in the region and subsequent environmental impact of modern humans (Beaufort et al., 2003; Anshari et al., 2004). In the recent past, foragers in the rainforests of Southeast Asia have maintained high residential mobility: for example, Puri (2005) reports one family among the now semi-sedentary Penan Benalui of the Lurah River area in East Kalimantan moving 51 times between 31 different campsites over a 30-year period. Food sources are widely distributed and often occur in low density under current rainforest conditions. The decision to move is usually based on the availability of key forest resources such as sago and game, particularly the bearded pig (Harrisson, 1949; Urquhart, 1954). The habitats of the animals and plants brought back to Niah (Cranbrook, 2000) and the makeup of the local landscape, as suggested through our own faunal and botanical studies, indicate that Late Pleistocene foragers inhabited a changing mosaic of habitats that appears to be without immediate modern analogue. These habitats included lowland dipterocarp and/or swamp forests (possibly in riparian environments), 258 al co p y G. Barker et al. / Journal of Human Evolution 52 (2007) 243e261 (Neolithic) activity and is associated with an environment with well-defined depositional processes operating immediately inside the cave entrance. Bone fragments of the skull have been directly dated by U-series to ca. 35 kyrs, although there is reason to believe that this date may be too young. Nevertheless, both the U-series from bone and radiocarbon ages from charcoal indicate a broadly similar age for the Deep Skull, in the order of 45e39 cal. kyrs BP. The evidence of recurrent episodes of channel incision and channel-fill sedimentation (Lithofacies 2) in the locality where we calculate that the Deep Skull was found suggests that the skull was preserved in one such channel-fill unit. Unfortunately, the field evidence no longer exists to test this model. The association of the human remains with the mudflow deposit and structures appears to be critical, as this process could achieve instant burial of these remains and provides a reason why the human remains were preserved at the site. The first modern humans to reach Southeast Asia were potentially ancestors to those of Australo-Melanesian stock, and were already a differentiated population upon arrival in Sundaland (e.g., Howells, 1973; Harpending et al., 1993; Lahr, 1996). The ‘southern route’ theory of an early eastward colonization out of Africa following tropical littoral environments predicts the arrival of modern humans in Sundaland perhaps as early as 60,000 years. MtDNA studies of Andaman Islanders (Thangaraj et al., 2005) and of the Orang Asli in the Malaysian peninsula (Macaulay et al., 2005) indicate genetic lineages with time depths of up to 65e60,000 years. Lithic assemblages at Kota Tampan in the Malay peninsula dated to ca. 74,000 years are interpreted as the product of early Homo sapiens (Majid, 2003). For many years, the Deep Skull was one of three principal modern human specimens discussed in terms of early fossil representatives in the region, the other two including Tabon Cave (Dizon et al., 2002) and Wajak (Storm, 2001). Each of these specimens depicts ‘robust’ Au th or 's pe rs open woodland, and scrub, interspersed with lakes or large rivers, but without evidence for marine resources. The variability between these environments and that of today makes the drawing of parallels between present and past foraging mobility problematical even where ethnographic analogies are locally derived and likely of considerable antiquity. The evidence from Niah Cave indicates that Late Pleistocene foragers in this part of Borneo were mobile, returning repeatedly to particular points in the landscape such as the cave. Whether the attraction lay with the cave itself or with particular local resources is uncleardthe cave was certainly in a significant ecotonal position, with access to a variety of different habitats. The comparatively small lithic assemblage and distant material sources (petrographic analysis of lithic artifacts recovered from the West Mouth indicates that the nearest source area for some types of stone was almost 50 km away: Majid, 1982) suggest that stone implements were being brought to the cave and often taken away again. The apparent use of nonselective hunting technologies such as traps for terrestrial game and the exploitation of plants that required lengthy processing indicate that visitors may have remained at the cave over a period of several days or more. Although a comparatively extensive assemblage, the different anthropic components of Lithofacies 2C still represent several thousand years of accumulation. If visits to the site were more than an overnight affair, this may be a further indication that the scale of the occupation at any one time was generally small (by family units, for example?). on Fig. 13. Inter-cutting pits dated to ca. 39e29 cal. kyrs BP possibly used for leaching toxins from food plants such as Pangium edule nuts (Photograph: G. Barker). Summary and conclusion The renewed investigations in the West Mouth of Niah Great Cave have established that the zone of early human occupation can be dated to earlier than 46 cal. kyrs BP. The anatomically modern Deep Skull is not an intrusive artifact of later 259 G. Barker et al. / Journal of Human Evolution 52 (2007) 243e261 co p y Southeast Asia of strategies directed specifically towards exploiting the structure and diversity of lowland tropical environments. Modern human penetration of these new lands and environments would have brought them into the territories of long-resident populations of surviving archaic humans, such as H. erectus and H. floresiensis, with the potential for scenarios every bit as fascinating and complex as those surrounding the arrival of their modern counterparts on the other side of the world, in Europe. Acknowledgements on al We thank Sarawak Museum for permission to undertake the fieldwork at Niah and the archive studies of their collections. The work has been funded principally by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, whose generous support is acknowledged, together with the British Academy, the British Academy’s Committee for Southeast Asian Studies, and the Natural Environment Research Council. Author contributions: GB: project coordination; HB: lithic microwear, residues, starch; MB: ABOX-AMS dating; PD: cave survey; ID: Sarawak Museum liaison; AD: guano tectonics; LF: illustration; DG: coordinator of environmental studies, geomorphology, and sedimentology; BH: Deep Skull discovery and subsequent archive support; CH: palynology; TH: 14C dating; JK: paleoanthropology; HL: micromorphology; LK: phytoliths; SMcL: geomorphology; VP: macro-plant remains; AP: U-series dating; PP: vertebrate remains; BP: cave biology; RR: bone tools, vertebrate remains; TR: excavation field director, lithics; JR: geomorphology and sedimentology; GR: palynology; MS: geomorphology, micromorphology, OSL dating; CS: U-series dating and paleoanthropology; GT: wood and charcoals; CT: 14 C dating. Au th or 's pe rs morphologies consistent with early human populations in Island Southeast Asia characterized as Australo-Melanesian. In terms of the fossil evidence, a right mandible fragment from the original 1930s excavations at Tabon Cave in Palawan (southern Philippines) has been re-dated using Th/U to 31,000 8000 years BP (39e23,000 yrs BP) (Dizon et al., 2002; Pawlik and Ronquillo, 2003), and a U-series date on a tibia has been reported of 47.0 10 kyrs (Detroit et al., 2004). The currently most complete skeleton, AMS-dated on associated charcoal to 25,800 600 BP (TK-933-Pr), comes from the southern Thai site of Moh Khiew (Matsumura and Pookajorn, 2005). The Wajak material has a Holocene radiocarbon date (Storm, 2001), but this young age seems unlikely given their size and robusticity, and new dating work is in progress (Pike and Stringer, in prep.). Unfortunately only one human tooth from Punung could be located and studied by Storm et al. (2005), with the suggestion that this is an upper premolar of H. sapiens dating from the early Late Pleistocene (ca. 120 kyrs BP), but both the dating and assignment of this tooth remain provisional. Thus, at 37e35 14C kyrs BP, or 44e40 cal. kyrs BP, the Niah Deep Skull provides the earliest secure evidence for anatomically modern humans in Southeast Asia, indeed amongst the earliest outside Africa (O’Connell and Allen, 2004; Trinkaus, 2005: Table 5). The Deep Skull has been directly associated by lithostratigraphy and radiocarbon dating with evidence for complex foraging behavior. An association between the remains of anatomically modern humans and the similar subsistence evidence that accumulated earlier in the archaeological sequence (earlier than 46 cal. kyrs BP) cannot, as yet, be similarly demonstrated. The fact that the behavioral capabilities of Homo floresiensis may also have included the use of fire and butchery (Morwood et al., 2005) cautions against making simple assumptions. Fragments from a second anatomically modern human skull in the Harrisson Excavation Archive provenanced to similarly ‘deep’ contexts in this area of the West Mouth offer the prospect of clarifying the association between the preDeep Skull archaeology and anatomically modern humans. If our understanding of the site taphonomy is correct, the developing archaeological and paleoecological evidence from the Late Pleistocene sediments in the West Mouth suggests that by at least 46 cal. kyrs BP hominins were in lowland Borneo and were exploiting a diverse interior landscape using a battery of technologies that may have included mammal and fish trapping, some form of projectile technology, tuber digging, plant detoxification, and forest burning. Early modern humans in Sundaland may not have exhibited some of the classic indicators of modernity as defined in the European Aurignacian, such as refined blade and bladelet technology, body ornamentation, and mobiliary and parietal art (Mellars, 2005), but their subsistence practices and engagement with the landscape were of demonstrable socio-economic complexity. The levels of resource use, forward planning, and ingenuity that would have been necessary for such strategies would not only parallel many of the developments seen in Late Pleistocene records of Europe and Africa, but also serve to illustrate human adaptive plasticity with the emergence in References Alvard, M., 2000. The impact of traditional subsistence hunting and trapping on prey populations: data from Wana horticulturalists of upland central Sulawesi, Indonesia. In: Robinson, J.G., Bennett, E.L. (Eds.), Hunting for Sustainability in Tropical Forests. Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 214e230. Anshari, G., Kershaw, A.P., van der Kaars, S., Jaconsen, G., 2004. Environmental change and peatland forest dynamics in the Lake Sentarum area, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. J. Quatern. Sci. 19 (7), 637e655. Bailey, R.C., Head, G., Jenike, M., Owen, B., Reichtman, R., Zechenter, E., 1989. Hunting and gathering in tropical rainforest: is it possible? Am. Anthropol. 91, 59e82. Bailey, R.C., Headland, T.N., 1991. The tropical rainforest: is it a productive environment for human foragers? Hum. Ecol. 19 (2), 261e285. Barker, G., 2005. The archaeology of foraging and farming at Niah Cave, Sarawak. Asian Perspect. 44 (1), 90e106. Barker, G., Barton, H., Beavitt, P., Bird, M., Daly, P., Doherty, C., Gilbertson, D., Hunt, C., Krigbaum, J., Lewis, H., Manser, J., McLaren, S., Paz, V., Piper, P., Pyatt, B., Rabett, R., Reynolds, T., Stephens, M., Rose, J., Rushworth, G., Stephens, M., 2002. Prehistoric foragers and farmers in Southeast Asia: renewed investigations at Niah Cave, Sarawak. Proc. Prehist. Soc. 68, 147e164. Barton, H., 2005. The case for rainforest foragers: the starch record at Niah Cave, Sarawak. Asian Perspect. 44 (1), 56e72. Beaufort, L., de Garidel-Thoron, T., Linsley, B., Oppo, D., Buchet, N., 2003. Biomass burning and oceanic primary production estimates in the Sulu Sea 260 G. Barker et al. / Journal of Human Evolution 52 (2007) 243e261 on al co p y Goldammer, J.G., Seibert, B., 1989. Natural rain forest fires in Eastern Borneo during the Pleistocene and Holocene. Naturwissenschaften 76, 518e520. Grün, R., Thorne, A., 1997. Dating the Ngandong humans. Science 276, 1575e1576. Harpending, H., Sherry, S.T., Rogers, A.R., Stoneking, M., 1993. The genetic structure of ancient human populations. Curr. Anthropol. 34, 483e496. Harrisson, B., 1961. BH Soil Stratigraphy e Hell. Pink and White Deposit, Depth Note for Hell and Adjacent Areas. Unpublished site notebook of T. Harrisson, in the Harrisson Archive of the Sarawak Museum, Kuching. Harrisson, T., 1949. Notes on some nomadic Punans. Sarawak Mus. J. (new series) 1, 134e146. Harrisson, T., 1957. The Great Cave of Niah: a preliminary report on Bornean prehistory. Man 57, 161e166. Harrisson, T., 1958a. The caves at Niah: a history of prehistory. Sarawak Mus. J. (new series) 12, 542e595. Harrisson, T., 1958b. Carbon-14 dated paleoliths from Borneo. Nature 181 (4611), 792. Harrisson, T., 1959a. Radiocarbon datings from Niah: a note. Sarawak Mus. J. (new series) 1314, 136e142. Harrisson, T., 1959b. New archaeological and ethnographical results from Niah Caves, Sarawak. Man 59, 1e8. Harrisson, T., 1965. 50,000 years of Stone Age culture in Borneo. Smithson. Inst. Annu. Rep. 964, 521e530. Harrisson, T., 1972. The prehistory of Borneo. Asian Perspect. 13, 17e45. Headland, T.N., 1987. The wild yam question: how well could independent hunter-gatherers live in a tropical rain forest ecosystem? Hum. Ecol. 15, 463e491. Heimann, J., 1998. The Most Offending Soul Alive. Tom Harrisson and His Remarkable Life. Honolulu University Press, Honolulu. Henshilwood, C.S., Marean, C.W., 2003. The origin of modern human behavior. Curr. Anthropol. 44 (5), 627e651. Hooijer, D.A., 1963. Further ‘Hell’ mammals from Niah. Sarawak Mus. J. (new series) 21e22, 201e213. Howells, W., 1973. The Pacific Islanders. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. Hunt, C.O., Rushworth, G., 2005. Airfall sedimentation and pollen taphonomy in the West Mouth of the Great Cave, Niah. J. Archaeol. Sci. 32, 465e473. Kamminga, J., Wright, R.V.S., 1988. The Upper Cave of Zhoukouian and the origins of the Mongoloids. J. Hum. Evol. 17, 739e767. Kennedy, K.A.R., 1979. The deep skull of Niah: an assessment of twenty years of speculation concerning its evolutionary significance. Asian Perspect. 20, 32e50. Kershaw, P.A., Penny, D., van der Kaars, S., Anshari, D., Thamotherampillai, A., 2001. Vegetation and climate in lowland southeast Asia at the Last Glacial Maximum. In: Metcalfe, I., Smith, J.M.B., Morwood, M., Davidson, I. (Eds.), Faunal and Floral Migrations and Evolution in SE Asia-Australasia. A.A. Balkema, Lisse, pp. 227e236. Krigbaum, J., 2001. Human paleodiet in tropical Southeast Asia: isotopic evidence from Niah Cave and Gua Cha. Ph.D. Dissertation, New York University. Krigbaum, J., Datan, I., 1999. The Deep Skull of Niah: Borneo’s first people. Borneo 5 (1), 13e17. Lahr, M., 1996. The Evolution of Modern Human Diversity: A Study of Cranial Variation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Macaulay, V., Hill, C., Achilli, A., Rengo, C., Clarke, D., Meehan, W., Blackburn, J., Semino, O., Scozzari, R., Cruciani, F., Taha, Adi, Kassim Shaari, Norazila, Maripa Raja, J., Ismail, Patimah, Zainuddin, Zafarina, Goodwin, W., Bulbeck, D., Bandelt, H.-J., Oppenheimer, S., Torroni, A., Richards, M., 2005. Single, rapid coastal settlement of Asia revealed by analysis of complete mitochondrial genomes. Science 308, 1034e1036. Majid, Zuraina, 1982. The West Mouth, Niah, in the prehistory of Southeast Asia. Sarawak Mus. J. 31 (new series 52) (Special Monograph no. 3). Majid, Zuraina, 2003. Archaeology in Malaysia. Centre for Archaeological Research Malaysia, Penang. Matsumura, H., Pookajorn, S., 2005. A morphometric analysis of the Late Pleistocene human skeleton from the Moh Khiew Cave in Thailand. HOMO - J. Comp. Hum. Biol. 56, 93e118. McBrearty, S., Brooks, A.S., 2000. The revolution that wasn’t: a new interpretation of the origins of modern human behavior. J. Hum. Evol. 39, 453e563. Au th or 's pe rs area over the last 380 kyr and the East Monsoon dynamics. Mar. Geol. 201, 53e65. Bellwood, P., 1997. Prehistory of the Indo-Malaysian Archipelago, second ed. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu. Bird, M., Ayliffe, L.K., Fifield, K., Cresswell, R., Turney, C., 1999. Radiocarbon dating of ‘old’ charcoal using a wet oxidation-stepped combustion procedure. Radiocarbon 41, 127e140. Bird, M., Taylor, D., Hunt, C., 2005. Paleoenvironments of insular Southeast Asia during the Last Glacial period: a savanna corridor in Sundaland? Quatern. Sci. Rev. 24, 2228e2242. Birdsell, J.B., 1979. A reassessment of the age, sex, and population affinities of the Niah cranium. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 50, 419. Brothwell, D.R., 1960. Upper Pleistocene human skull from Niah caves, Sarawak. Sarawak Mus. J. (new series) 15e16, 323e349. Brown, P., 1992. Recent human evolution in East Asia and Australasia. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., B 337, 235e242. Brumm, A., Aziz, F., van den Bergh, G.D., Morwood, M.J., Moore, M.W., Kurniawan, I., Hobbs, D.R., Fullagar, R., 2006. Early stone technology on Flores and its implications for Homo floresiensis. Nature 441, 624e628. Bulbeck, D., 1982. A re-evaluation of possible evolutionary processes in Southeast Asia since the late Pleistocene. Bull. Indo-Pacific Prehist. Assoc. 3, 1e21. Burkill, I.H., 1966. A Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula. Ministry of Agriculture, Kuala Lumpur. Colinvaux, P.A., Bush, M.B., 1991. The rainforest ecosystem as a resource for hunting and gathering. Am. Anthropol. 93, 153e162. Conard, N., Grootes, P.M., Smith, F.H., 2004. Unexpectedly recent dates for human remains from Vogelherd. Nature 430, 199e201. Coursey, D.G., 1967. Yam: An Account of the Nature, Origins, Cultivation and Utilisation of the Useful Members of the Dioscoreaceae. Longmans, London. Cranbrook, Earl of, Labang, D., 2003. Bearded pigs (Sus barbatus): tooth-wear and aging wild populations in Sarawak. Sarawak Mus. J. (new series) 79, 163e182. Cranbrook, Earl of, 2000. North Borneo environments of the past 40,000 years: archaeozoological evidence. Sarawak Mus. J. (new series) 76, 61e109. Dennell, R.W., 2005. The Solo (Ngandong) Homo erectus assemblage: a taphonomic assessment. Archaeol. Ocean. 40 (3), 81e90. Detroit, F., Dizon, E., Falgueres, C., Hameau, S., Ronquillo, W., Semah, F., 2004. Upper Pleistocene Homo sapiens from the Tabon cave (Palawan, The Philippines): description and dating of new discoveries. C.R. Palevol. 3, 705e712. Dizon, E., Détroit, F., Sémah, F., Falguères, C., Hameau, S., Ronquillo, W., Cabanis, E., 2002. Notes on the morphology and age of the Tabon Cave fossil Homo sapiens. Curr. Anthropol. 43, 660e666. Dykes, A. Mass movements in cave sediments: geotechnical investigation of a w42,000-year old guano mudflow inside Niah Great Cave, Sarawak, Borneo. Landslides, in press. Eder, J.F., 1978. The caloric returns to food collection: disruption and change among the Batak of the Philippine tropical forest. Hum. Ecol. 6, 55e69. Fairbanks, R.G., Mortlock, R.A., Chiu, Tzu-Chieu, Cao, Li, Kaplan, A., Guilderson, T.P., Fairbanks, T., Bloom, A.L., 2005. Marine radiocarbon calibration curve spanning 0e50,000 years BP based upon paired 230 Th/234U/238U and 14C dates on pristine corals. Quatern. Sci. Rev. 24, 1781e1796. Farrant, A., Smart, P., Whitaker, F., Tarling, D., 1995. Long-term Quaternary uplift rates inferred from limestone caves in Sarawak, Malaysia. Geology 23, 357e360. Gathorne-Hardy, F.J., Syaunkani, Davies, G., Eggleton, P., Jones, D.T., 2002. Quaternary rainforest refugia in southeast Asia: using termites (Isoptera) as indicators. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 75, 453e466. Gilbertson, D., Bird, M., Hunt, C., McLaren, S., Mani Banda, R., Pyatt, B., Rose, J., Stephens, M., 2005. Past human activity and geomorphological change in a guano-rich tropical cave mouth: initial interpretations of the Late Quaternary succession in the Great Cave of Niah, Sarawak. Asian Perspect. 44 (1), 16e41. 261 G. Barker et al. / Journal of Human Evolution 52 (2007) 243e261 on al co p y Reimer, P.J., Baillie, M.G.L., McCormac, G., Reimer, R.W., Bard, E., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Buck, C.E., Burr, G.S., Edwards, R.L., Friedrich, M., Guilderson, T.P., Hogg, A.G., Hughen, K.A., Kromer, B., Manning, S., Southon, J.R., Stuiver, M., van der Plicht, J., Weyhenmeyer, C.E., 2006. Comment on ‘Marine radiocarbon calibration curve spanning 0e50,000 years BP based upon paired 230Th/234U/238U and 14C dates on pristine corals’ by R.G. Fairbanks et al. (Quatern. Sci. Rev. 24 (2005) 1781e1796) and ‘Extending the radiocarbon calibration beyond 26,000 years before present using fossil corals’ by T.-C. Chiu et al. (Quatern. Sci. Rev. 24 (2005) 1797e1808). Quatern. Sci. Rev. 25, 855e862. Solheim, W., 1983. Archaeological research in Sarawak, past and future. Sarawak Mus. J. 53, 35e58. Stephens, M., 2004. Reconstructing Late Quaternary paleoenvironments from deposits in the West Mouth of the Great Cave of Niah, Sarawak, Borneo. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of London, Royal Holloway. Stephens, M., Roberts, R.G., Lian, O.B., Yoshida, H. Progress in optical dating of guano-rich sediments associated with the ‘Deep Skull’, West Mouth of the Great Cave of Niah, Sarawak, Borneo. Quatern. Geochron., in press. Stephens, M., Rose, J., Gilbertson, D., Canti, M., 2005. Micromorphology of cave sediments in the humid tropics: Niah Cave, Sarawak. Asian Perspect. 44 (1), 42e55. Storm, P., 2001. The evolution of humans in Australasia from an environmental perspective. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 171, 363e383. Storm, P., Aziz, F., de Vos, J., Kosasih, Dikdik, Baskoro, Sinung, Ngaliman, van den Hoek Ostende, L.W., 2005. Late Pleistocene Homo sapiens in a tropical rainforest fauna in East Java. J. Hum. Evol. 49, 536e545. Sun, X., Li, X., Luo, Y., Chen, X., 2000. The vegetation and climate at the last glaciation on the emerged continental shelf of the South China Sea. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 160, 301e316. Swisher III, C.C., Rink, W.J., Antón, S.C., Schwarcz, H.P., Curtis, G.H., Suprijo, A., Widiasmoro, 1996. Latest Homo erectus of Java: potential contemporaneity with Homo sapiens in Southeast Asia. Science 274, 1870e1874. Thangaraj, K., Chaubey, G., Kivisild, T., Reddy, A.G., Singh, V.K., Rasalkar, A., Singh, L., 2005. Reconstructing the origin of the Andaman Islanders. Science 308, 996. Townsend, P.K., 1990. On the possibility/impossibility of tropical forest hunting and gathering. Am. Anthropol. 92, 745e747. Trinkaus, E., 2005. Early modern humans. Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 34, 207e230. Urquhart, I.A.N., 1954. Jungle Punans are human. Sarawak Gaz. June 30, 121e123. Vogel, J.C., Waterbolk, H.T., 1963. Gröningen radiocarbon dates IV. Radiocarbon 5, 163e202. Voris, H.K., 2000. Maps of Pleistocene sea levels in Southeast Asia: shorelines, river systems, and time durations. J. Biogeogr. 27, 1153e1167. de Vries, H., Waterbolk, H.T., 1958. Gröningen radiocarbon dates III. Science 128, 1550e1556. Wilford, G., 1964. The Geology of the Sabah and Sarawak Caves. Bulletin of the Geological Survey, Borneo Region, Malaysia, no. 6, Sarawak. Wolpoff, M.H., 1999. Paleoanthropology, second ed. McGraw Hill, Boston. Yokoyama, Y., Lambeck, K., DeDekker, P., Johnston, P., Fifield, L.K., 2001. Sea-level at the Last Glacial Maximum: evidence from northwestern Australia to constrain ice volumes for oxygen-isotope stage 2. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 165, 281e297. Au th or 's pe rs Medway, Lord, 1978. The wild pig remains from the West Mouth, Niah Cave. Sarawak Mus. J. (new series) 46, 21e39. Mellars, P., 1989. Technological changes and the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition: economics, social and cognitive perspectives. In: Mellars, P., Stringer, C. (Eds.), The Human Revolution. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, pp. 338e365. Mellars, P., 1996. Symbolism, language, and the Neanderthal mind. In: Mellars, P., Gibson, K. (Eds.), Modelling the Human Mind. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research Monograph, Cambridge, pp. 15e32. Mellars, P., 2005. The impossible coincidence. A single-species model of the origins of modern human behaviour in Europe. Evol. Anthropol. 14, 12e27. Millard, A.R., Hedges, R.E.M., 1996. A diffusion-adsorption model of uranium uptake by archaeological bone. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 60 (12), 2130e2152. Morwood, M.J., Brown, P., Jatmiko, Sutikna, T., Wahyu Saptomo, E., Westaway, K.E., Awe Due, Rokus, Roberts, R.G., Maeda, T., Wasisto, S., Djubiantono, T., 2005. Further evidence for small-bodied hominins from the late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia. Nature 437, 1012e1017. Morwood, M.J., Soejono, R.P., Roberts, R.G., Sutikna, T., Turney, C.S.M., Westaway, K.E., Rink, W.J., Zhao, J.-x., van den Bergh, G.D., Awe Due, Rokus, Hobbs, D.R., Moore, M.W., Bird, M.I., Fifield, L.K., 2004. Archaeology and age of a new hominin from Flores in eastern Indonesia. Nature 431, 1087e1091. Ochse, J.J., 1980. Vegetables of the Dutch East Indies. Asher and Co., Amsterdam. O’Connell, J., Allen, J., 2004. Dating the colonization of Sahul (Pleistocene AustraliaeNew Guinea): a review of recent research. J. Archaeol. Sci. 31, 835e853. Pawlik, A.F., Ronquillo, W.P., 2003. The Palaeolithic in the Philippines. Lithic Technol. 28 (2), 79e93. Paz, V., 2005. Rock shelters, caves, and archaeobotany in Island Southeast Asia. Asian Perspect. 44 (1), 107e118. Pike, A.W.G., Eggins, S., Grün, R., Hedges, R.E.M., Jacobi, R.M., 2005. Useries dating of Late Pleistocene fauna from Wood Quarry (Steetley), Nottinghamshire, UK. J. Quatern. Sci. 20 (1), 59e65. Pike, A.W.G., Hedges, R.E.M., van Calsteren, P., 2002. U-series dating of bone using the diffusion-adsorption model. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 66 (24), 4273e4286. Puri, R.K., 2005. Post-abandonment ecology of Penan forest camps: anthropological and ethnobiological approaches to the history of a rain-forested valley in East Kalimantan. In: Dove, M.R., Sajise, P.E., Doolittle, A.A. (Eds.), Conserving Nature in Culture: Case Studies from Southeast Asia. Monograph 54/Yale Southeast Asian Studies, pp. 25e82. Rabett, R.J., 2005. The early exploitation of Southeast Asian mangroves: bone technology from caves and open sites. Asian Perspect. 44 (1), 154e179. Rabett, R.J., Piper, P., Barker, G., 2006. Bones from Hell: preliminary results of new work on the Harrisson faunal assemblage from the deepest part of Niah Cave, Sarawak. In: Bacus, E.A., Glover, I.C., Pigott, V.C. (Eds.), Uncovering Southeast Asia’s Past: Selected Papers from the Tenth Biennial Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists, London 2004. National University Press, Singapore, pp. 46e59. Reading, H.G. (Ed.), 1996. Sedimentary Environments and Facies. Blackwells Scientific, Oxford.

RELATED PAPERS

RELATED TOPICS

Log In

The ‘human revolution’ in lowland tropical Southeast Asia: the antiquity and behavior of anatomically modern humans at Niah Cave (Sarawak, Borneo

The ‘human revolution’ in lowland tropical Southeast Asia: the antiquity and behavior of anatomically modern humans at Niah Cave (Sarawak, Borneo

Related Papers

RELATED PAPERS

RELATED TOPICS