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

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 pre-treatments 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. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Prehistoric foragers and farmers in south-east Asia:Renewed investigations at Niah Cave, Sarawak

The paper describes the initial results from renewed investigations at Niah Cave in Sarawak on the island of Borneo, famous for the discovery in 1958 of the c. 40,000-year old 'Deep Skull'. The archaeological sequences from the West Mouth and the other entrances of the cave complex investigated by Tom and Barbara Harrisson and other researchers have potential implications for three major debates regarding the prehistory of south-east Asia: the timing of initial settlement by anatomically modern humans; the means by which they subsisted in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene; and the timing, nature, and causation of the transition from foraging to farming. The new project is informing on all three debates. The critical importance of the Niah stratigraphies was commonly identified - including by Tom Harrisson himself - as because the site provided a continuous sequence of occupation over the past 40,000 years. The present project indicates that Niah was first used at least 45,000 years ago, and probably earlier; that the subsequent Pleistocene and Holocene occupations were highly variable in intensity and character; and that in some periods, perhaps of significant duration, the caves may have been more or less abandoned. The cultural sequence that is emerging from the new investigations may be more typical of cave use in tropical rainforests in south-east Asia than the Harrisson model.

The Technocrat - v. 35, no. 2

In this issue...2014 Elections, native fish restoration, Ryan Zinke, John Lewis, Academic Center for Excellence, climate change, interpersonal communication, student opinion

Syria

by W. Hughes.

University of Michigan Football Team, 1901

Top Row: Wesley Winkler, Ralph Drake, Charles Rothschild, Norman Sterry, Kenneth Robinson, Alfred Chadwick, Weldon Fix, Ross Kidston, Les Barkenbus, Harrison Weeks, David Dunlap, George Gregory, Harold Baker, Cecil Gooding, George Sadler

Third Row: student mngr. H.C. Crafts, Edward Dickey(?), David Beardsley, William Snushall, ? Smith, George Davison, Kennedy Potter, ? Clark, Charles Van Valkenberg, Neil Snow, Joseph Horgan, James Forrest, William Foote, Webb Sadler, ? Hayes

Second Row: trainer Keene Fitzpatrick, ? Smith, Samuel Sackett, Everett Sweeley, Herbert Graver, Walter Shaw, Hugh White, Albert Herrnstein, Curtis Redden, Dan McGugin, Ebin Wilson, Bruce Shorts, Arthur Redner, Temple Owens

Front Row: Ralph Husson, Albert Preussman, Arthur Urquhart, Willie Heston, Benjamin Southworth, coach Fielding Yost, Charles Crane, Jerome (mascot), John Lewis, Frank Doty, Frank Belknap

University of Michigan Football Team, 1902

Back row-standing: Keene Fitzpatrick, Joe Maddock, Coach Fielding Yost, Dan McGugin, Eugene Tefler, Frank Doty, Rolla Bigelow, Lorin(?) Jones, Andrews, Andrews, Samuel Sackett, DeStelle DeLappe, Anderson, William Snushall, Elmer Shank, Brown, William Cole, Clarence Wilcox, Shirk, Lake, James Turner, Kennedy Potter, George Read, Richardson, Ralph Drake, John Hincks, Clifford Kennedy

Middle Row-kneeling: Chauncey Brewer, John H. James, David Smith, Abner Howell, James Forrest, William Palmer, George Edmonds, Edwards, Spaulding, John Belford, Davis, Eldred Keays, Samuel Ball, Hemeneway, Palmer,

Front Row: Charles VanValkenberg, Paul Dickey, Herbert Graver, Paul Jones, Everett Sweeley, Charles Carter, Albert Herrnstein, Ross Kidston, George Gregory, William Weeks, James Knight, Norman Sterry, Curtis Redden, Harold Baker, Moses Johnson, James Maynard, Frederick Woodward, Chris Cron, Chester Apel, Cooley, John Lewis

An annotated bibliography of Sandia Laboratories publications related to terradynamics /

"Contract AT(29-1)-789."

A treatise of the cholick : containing analytical proofs of its many causes, and mechanical explanations of its several symptoms and accidents /

Mode of access: Internet.

Flowers and weeds of the Old Dominion: poems /

Errors in paging: 146, 147 and 158 numbered 144, 174 and 58, respectively.

Magic at home : a book of amusing science /

"A somewhat free translation of the Science amusante of M. Arthur Good." -Pref.

Travels in Syria and the Holy Land /

Mode of access: Internet.

Reisen in Arabien, enthaltend eine Beschreibung derjenigen Gebiete in Hedjag, welche die Mohammedaner für heilig achten von Londoner Gesellschaft zur Beforderung der Entdeckung des innern von Africa

Mode of access: Internet.