Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-01T20:11:01.494Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Problems in the Stone Age of South-East Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

T. E. G. Reynolds
T. E. G. Reynolds*
Affiliation:
19 Windsor Road, Cambridge CB4 3JJ
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Whilst research has shown many faults with the Movius scheme of a Middle Pleistocene group of Chopper/Chopping tool industries in South-East Asia, it remains a fact that pebble tool industries are still the dominant characteristic of the South-East Asian record. Exploration has now revealed hundreds of Late Pleistocene and Holocene sites in Mainland South-East Asia and these are archaeologically very different from cave sites in Europe. Further problems exist with the current nomenclature of later industries, such as the Hoabinhian and the Neolithic, for there is a large amount of overlap between such assemblages. Should such factors as economy, site location, etc. be used to assist clarification of such problems?

This paper outlines some of these issues and reveals that the pebble tool tradition as it is widely known in South-East Asia is a relatively recent phenomenon dating back to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). A possible reason for the change from flake to pebble tool industrial types and in the visibility of sites is the environmental changes and rise in sea level which submerged over half the available land area in the region during the Late Pleistocene. An existing broad spectrum system of exploitation was likely to have been intensified as a result of this.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 59 , Issue 1 , 1993 , pp. 1 - 15
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allen, J., Golson, J.J. & Jones, R. 1977. Sunda and Sahul: Prehistoric Studies on Southeast Asia, Melanesia and Australia. London: Academic.Google Scholar
Allen, J., Gosden, C., Jones, R. & White, J.P. 1988. Pleistocene dates for human occupation of New Ireland, northern Melanesia. Nature 331, 707–709.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anderson, D. D. 1988. Excavations of a prehistoric rockshelter in Krabi and the prehistory of southern Thailand. In Chareonwongsa, P. & Bronson, B. (eds), Prehistoric Studies: The Stone and Metal Ages in Thailand, 43–59. Bangkok: Amarin.Google Scholar
Anderson, D.D. 1990. Lang Rongrien Rockshelter: A Pleistocene-Early Holocene Archaeological Site from Krabi, Southwestern Thailand. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, University Museum Monograph 71.Google Scholar
Ashton, P. & Ashton, M. (eds) 1971. The Quaternary Era in Malesia. Hull: Department of Geography, University of Hull Miscellaneous Series, 13.Google Scholar
Barr, S. M., MacDonald, A. S., Haile, N. S. & Reynolds, P. H. 1976. Paleomagnetism and age of the Lampang basalt (northern Thailand) and the age of the underlying pebble tools. Journal of the Geological Society of Thailand 2, 1–10.Google Scholar
Bartstra, G. J. 1974. Notes about Sangiran (Java, Indonesia). Quärtär 25, 1–12.Google Scholar
Bartstra, G. J. 1976. Contribution to the Study of the Palaeolithic Patjitan Culture, Java, Indonesia. Leiden; E. J. Brill.Google Scholar
Bartstra, G.J. 1977. Walaane formation and Walaane terraces in the stratigraphy of South Sulawesi (Celebes, Indonesia). Quärtär 27/28, 21–30.Google Scholar
Bartstra, G.J. 1978. The Patjitan culture: a preliminary report on new research. In Smith, F. Ikawa (ed.), Paleolithic of South and East Asia, 29–36. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartstra, G.J. 1982. Homo erectus erectus: the search for his artefacts. Current Anthropology 23, 318–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartstra, G.J. 1983. Some remarks upon: fossil man from Java, his age and his tools. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde 139, 421–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartstra, G.J. 1985. Sangiran, the stone implements of Ngebung, and the Paleolithic of Java. Modern Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia 9, 99–113.Google Scholar
Bartstra, G.J. & Basoeki, 1979. A new stone age site in East Java: an announcement. Modern Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia 5, 89–90.Google Scholar
Bartstra, G.J. & Basoeki, 1989. Recent work on the Pleistocene and the Palaeolithic of Java. Current Anthropology 30, 241–44.Google Scholar
Bartstra, G.J., Basoeki, & Santosa-Azis, B. 1976. Solo Valley research 1975, Java, Indonesia. Modern Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia 2, 23–36.Google Scholar
Bartstra, G.J., Soegondho, S. & van der Wijk, A. 1988. Ngandong man: age and artefacts. Journal of Human Evolution 17, 325–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellwood, P. 1979. Man's Conquest ofthe Pacific. The Prehistory of Southeast Asia and Oceania. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bellwood, P. 1984. Archaeological research in the Madai-Baturong region, Sabah. Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Bulletin 5, 38–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronson, B. & Natapintu, S. 1988. Don Noi: a new flaked tool industry of the middle Holocene in western Thailand. In Charoenwongsa, P. & Bronson, B. (eds), Prehistoric Studies: The Stone and Metal Ages in Thailand, 91–106. Bangkok: Amarin.Google Scholar
Brothwell, D.R. 1960. Upper Pleistocene skull from Niah Caves. Sarawak Museum Journal 9, 323–49.Google Scholar
Ciochon, R. L. & Olsen, J. W. 1986. Paleoanthropological and archaeological research in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Journal of Human Evolution 15, 623–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colani, M. 1931. Recherches sur le préhistorique indochinoise. Bulletin de l'école française d'Extrème Orient 30, 299–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collings, H. D. 1938. A Pleistocene site in the Malay Peninsula. Nature 142, 575–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cosgrave, R. 1989. Thirty thousand years of human colonization in Tasmania: new Pleistocene dates. Science 243, 1706–708.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, J. H. C. S. 1975. Recent archaeological activity in Vietnam. Journal of the Hong Kong Archaeological Society 6, 80–99.Google Scholar
Evans, I. H. N. 1930. On ancient kitchen middens in Province Wellesley. Journal of the Federated Malay States Museums 15, 15–18.Google Scholar
Foley, R. 1984. Hominid Evolution and Community Ecology; Prehistoric Human Adaptation in Biological Perspective. London: Academic.Google Scholar
Fox, R. 1970. The Tabon Caves: Archaeological Explorations and Excavations on Palawan Island, Philippines. Quezon City: National Museum of the Philippines.Google Scholar
Fox, R. 1978. The Philippine Paleolithic. In Smith, F. Ikawa (ed.), Early Paleolithic in South and East Asia, 59–85. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glover, I. C. 1981. Leang Burung 2: an Upper Palaeolithic rockshelter in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Modern Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia 6, 1–38.Google Scholar
Gorman, C. F. 1971. The Hoabinhian and after: subsistence patterns in Southeast Asia during the Late Pleistocene and Early Recent Periods. World Archaeology 2, 300–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Groube, L., Chappell, L., Muke, J. & Price, D. 1986. A 40,000 year-old occupation site at Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea. Nature 324, 453–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harrisson, T. 1958. The caves of Niah: a history of prehistory. Sarawak Museum Journal 8, 549–95.Google Scholar
Harrisson, T. 1959. New archaeological and ethnological results from Niah Cave, Sarawak. Man 59, 1–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrisson, T. 1970. The prehistory of Borneo. Asian Perspectives 13, 17–45.Google Scholar
Harrisson, T. 1975. Tampan: Malaysia's Palaeolithic reconsidered. Modern Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia 1, 53–70.Google Scholar
Heekeren, H. R. van 1948. Prehistoric discoveries in Siam, 1943–1944. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 14, 24–32.Google Scholar
Heekeren, H. R. van 1972. The Stone Age of Indonesia (2nd ed.). 's- Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Higham, C. F. 1989. The Archaeology of Mainland Southeast Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hooijer, D. A. 1972a. Stegodon trigonocephalus from Flores and Timor. Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, Series B 75, 12–33.Google Scholar
Hooijer, D. A. 1972b. Pleistocene vertebrates from Celebes. Zoologische Medelingen (Leiden) 46, 1–16.Google Scholar
Hutterer, K. L. 1977. Reinterpreting the Southeast Asian Paleolithic. In Allen, J., Golson, J. J. & Jones, R. (eds), Sunda and Sahul: Prehistoric Studies on Southeast Asia, Melanesia and Australia, 31–77. London: Academic.Google Scholar
Hutterer, K. L. 1987. Absolute dates for the Hominid-bearing deposits in Java: an overview. Asian Perspectives 25 (1982–1983), 53–65.Google Scholar
Jacob, T., Soejono, R. P., Freeman, L. & Brown, F. H. 1978. Stone tools from Mid-Pleistocene sediments in Java. Science 202, 885–87.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jamieson, N. 1985. A perspective on Vietnamese prehistory based upon the relationship between geological and archaeological data: summary of an earlier article by Nguyen Due Tam. Asian Perspectives 24 (1981), 187–92.Google Scholar
Kha, L. T. 1976. First remarks on the Quaternary fossil fauna of northern Vietnam. Vietnamese Studies 46, 107–26.Google Scholar
Koenigswald, G. H. R. von 1960. Preliminary report on a newly discovered Stone Age culture from northern Luzon, Philippine Islands. Asian Perspectives 2 (1958), 69–70.Google Scholar
Koenigswald, G. H. R. von 1978. Lithic industries of Pithecanthropus erectus of Java. In Smith, F. Ikawa (ed.), Early Paleolithic in South and East Asia, 23–27. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koenigswald, G. H. R. von & Ghosh, A. K. 1973. Stone implements from the Trinil Beds at Sangiran, central Java. Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wettenschappen, Series B 76, 1–17.Google Scholar
Maringer, J. & Verhoeven, Th. 1970a. Die Steinartefakte aus der Stegodon-Fossilschicht von Mengeruda auf Flores, Indonesien. Anthropos 65, 229–47.Google Scholar
Maringer, J. & Verhoeven, Th. 1970b. Die Oberflächenfunde aus dem Fossilgebiet von Mengeruda und Olabula auf Flores, Indonesien. Anthropos 65, 503–46.Google Scholar
Movius, H. L., II 1944. Early man and Pleistocene stratigraphy in southern and eastern Asia. Papers of the Peabody Museum 19(3).Google Scholar
Movius, H. L., II 1955. Palaeolithic archaeology in southern and eastern Asia, exclusive of India. Cahier d'histoire mondiale 2, 257–82 & 520–53.Google Scholar
Pope, G. G. 1985. Evidence of Early Pleistocene hominid activity from Lampang, northern Thailand. Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Bulletin 6, 2–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pope, G. G. 1988. Recent advances in Far Eastern paleoanthropology. Annual Review of Anthropology 17, 43–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pope, G. G., Frayer, D. W., Liangchareon, M., Kulasing, P. & Nakabanlang, N. 1981. Palaeoanthropological investigations of the Thai-American expedition in northern Thailand (1978–1980). Asian Perspectives 21, 147–63.Google Scholar
Pope, G. G., Barr, S., MacDonald, A. & Nakabanlang, S. 1986. Earliest radiometrically dated artefacts from Southeast Asia. Current Anthropology 27, 275–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reynolds, T. E. G. 1990. The Hoabinhian: a review. In Barnes, G. L. (ed.), Hoabinhian, Jomon, Yayoi, Early Korean Studies. Bibliographic Reviews of Far Eastern Archaeology 1990, 1–30. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Shutler, R. & Mathiesen, M. 1979. Pleistocene studies in the Cagayan Valley of northern Luzon, Philippines. Journal of the Hong Kong Archaeological Society 8, 105–14.Google Scholar
Sieveking, A. 1960. The Palaeolithic industry of Kota Tampan, Perak, northwestern Malaya. Asian Perspectives 2 (1958), 91–102.Google Scholar
Solheim, W. G., II 1969. Reworking Southeast Asian prehistory. Paideuma 15, 125–39.Google Scholar
Solheim, W. G., II 1972. Northern Thailand, Southeast Asia and world prehistory. Asian Perspectives 13 (1970), 145–62.Google Scholar
Sorenson, P. 1976. Preliminary note on the relative and absolute chronology of two early Palaeolithic sites from north Thailand. In Ghosh, A. K. (ed.), Le Paléolithique inferieur et moyen en Inde, en Asie centrale, en Chine et dans le Sud-Est Asiatique, 237–51. Nice: IXe Congres, Union International de Sciences Préhistorique et Protohistorique, Colloque VII.Google Scholar
Sorenson, P. 1988. The Lannathian Culture: the Early Palaeolithic Culture of Northern Thailand. Paper presented to the Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists in Western Europe. 2nd International Conference, Paris, September 1988.Google Scholar
Tan, H. V. 1976. The Hoabinhian in the context of Vietnam. Vietnamese Studies 46, 127–97.Google Scholar
Tan, H. V. 1985. The late Pleistocene climate in Southeast Asia: new data from Vietnam. Modern Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia 9, 81–86.Google Scholar
Turner, A. 1984. Hominids and fellow-travellers: human migration into high latitudes as part of a large mammal community. In Foley, R. (ed.), Hominid Evolution and Community Ecology. Prehistoric Human Adaptation in a Biological Perspective, 193–217. London: Academic.Google Scholar
Vaufrey, R. 1927. Découverte d'industrie préhistorique à Sumatra et dans la présqu'île de Malacca. L'Anthropologie 37, 229–39.Google Scholar
Viet, N. G. 1989. Radiocarbon Dating of Prehistoric Sites in Viet Nam. Lecture presented at the Institute of Archaeology, University of London, May 1989.Google Scholar
Walker, D. & Sieveking, A. 1962. The Palaeolithic industry of Kota Tampan, Perak, Malaya. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 28, 103–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wickler, S. & Spriggs, M. 1988. Pleistocene human occupation of the Solomon Islands, Melanesia. Antiquity 62, 703–706.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Majid, Zuraina 1982. The West Mouth, Niah, in the prehistory of Southeast Asia. Sarawak Museum Journal 31 (special monograph).Google Scholar
Majid, Zuraina 1990. The Tampanian problem resolved. Archaeological evidence of a Late Pleistocene lithic workshop. Modern Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia 11, 71–96.Google Scholar
Majid, Zuraina & Tjia, H. D. 1988. Kota Tampan, Perak: the geological and archaeological evidence for a Late Pleistocene site. Journal of the Malaysian Branch, Royal Asiatic Society 61, 123–34.Google Scholar