An international team of archaeologists has found a human jawbone in a cave southwest of Sulawesi, one of Indonesia’s largest islands. The remains are the first signs of human settlement on the island during the Pleistocene, climate change, and rapid population growth.
The jaws — full of teeth — were 25,000 and 16,000 years ago, though the group was unable to determine its identity or age. The result was published today on PLoS One.
“This man must have come from a modern generation who came to Sulawesi with weapons thousands of years ago, ”author Adam Brumm, an archaeologist at the Australian Research Center for Human Evolution at Griffith University in Brisbane, told Gizmodo in an email.
Southeast Asia has a museum of hominin found in their rock caves. In recent years, the islands of the Philippines and Indonesia have achieved just that Homo floresiensis and Homo luzonensis, relatives who were able to be named on the islands they discovered. In the past, hominis (our tribesmen and others) passed through the island, setting up shop in the area and painting on their walls. Some in the Philippines maybe he ate on large mice, perched on trees.
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The jawbone was found in Leang Bulu Bettue, a cave in Sulawesi’s southwestern region of Maros. The team knew from previous work that the dirt layer the bone came out of was between 25,000 and 16,000 years old, based on several dating methods: isotope analysis of stalagmites exposed during those excavations, radiocarbon dating of shells found in the same layer, laser ablation dating of a pig tooth found there, and optical dating of feldspar rock in the layer. The radiocarbon-dated shell was previously used for the maximum of the layer—about 22,300 years ago—but due to some uncertainty As to how the water could affect its effects, in this paper researchers described the isotope of stalagmites, which are 24,800 to 16,000 years old.
Last month, another group including Brumm he announced material recovery from 7,000-year-old bones in Sulawesi; the rest belonged to an 18-year-old woman who died at the Holocene. The recently said jaws were left with the rest of the time; there was more time between this old man and the Holocene woman than between the Holocene woman and us.
New discovery is coming back Homo sapienspresence in Sulawesi for thousands of years. “Unfortunately, the metaphor is so incomplete and divisive that it doesn’t tell us much about the person who came from — except that the person had very bad teeth,” Brumm said. He knew the man was big, because the third one exploded, but he couldn’t go deeper.
“We’re really looking forward to finding the remains of the person from whom this small piece came from,” added Brumm. “He should be buried somewhere in this place, and if we keep digging, maybe we’ll have a chance to find them someday–or the remains of other ancient peoples who were buried. “
Whether our existence has existed or has been at odds with other religions in Sulawesi is unknown, but it is possible that various groups have merged, Brumm said. They live on the same island all at once. Perhaps future findings will tell more about that story.
More: Painting in a Pig Cave Could be the oldest Paintings of animals