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Environment, preferred habitats and potential refugia for Pleistocene Homo in Southeast Asia

Julien LOUYS & Alan TURNER

en Comptes Rendus Palevol 11 (2-3) - Pages 203-211

Published on 30 April 2012

This article is a part of the thematic issue Mainland and insular Asia: Current debates about first settlements

Multiple lines of evidence suggest that Southeast Asia was dominated by a mix of savannah, open woodlands, and evergreen forests throughout much of the Pleistocene. These conditions are ideal for early hominin subsistence; however, they would have been rare for much of the rest of Asia during glacial periods. We explore the possibility that Southeast Asia would have served as a refugium for hominins during these periods. In particular, we draw parallels with the population source and sink model proposed for northern Europe (Dennell et al. 2010), with Southeast Asia acting as a population source and northern China acting as a population sink.


Keywords:

Savannah, Source and sink, Dispersal, Migration, Sundaland, Indochina

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