from III. - South and Southeast Asia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2014
Southeast Asia is the warm, humid corner of the Eurasian landmass (Map 1.21.1). The region lies east of the Indian Subcontinent and, essentially, south of China. It covers the Indonesian and Philippine archipelagos as well as the Malay and Indochina peninsulas. Herein the northern border is the Tropic of Cancer (23.3o N). The region has a generally tropical, rainy climate with the wet monsoon dominating the annual cycle. Current political distinctions are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the southern portions of Yunnan, Guangxi, and Guangdong provinces in China. The Southeast Asian Early Palaeolithic has a highly varied representation across three internal provinces: the mainland, Sunda and the eastern island arc.
The mainland province descends from the Tropic of Cancer to the present coastline. The mainland is mountainous and traversed by large rivers draining the Tibetan Plateau and eastern flanks to the north. These include Thanlwin, Ayeyarwady, Chao Phraya and Mekong. The mainland climate is generally humid subtropical. Subject to archaeological survey for more than a century, the mainland has just one set of undisputed Early Palaeolithic sites: those of the Bose Basin, Guangxi Province, China. The major rivers have terrace deposits holding lithic assemblages of controversial temporal provenance.
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