Early Modern Humans from Tam Pà Ling, Laos

Abstract

Despite the importance of its geographical position for early modern human migration through Australasia, the Indochinese Peninsula has produced relatively few fossils or well-documented archaeological sites, resulting in a poor chronology for early occupation. Tam Pa Ling (TPL), a cave in northern Laos, is one of the rare sites yielding fossils contemporaneous with the earliest migrants into Australasia within a securely established chronology. From its discovery in 2008 until the most recently filed season in 2016, TPL has provided evidence of a modern human presence in the region by marine isotope stages 4 and 3. A partial cranium (TPL1), two mandibles (TPL2, TPL3), and assorted postcranial fragments (TPL4, TPL5) represent the earliest well-dated, anatomically modern humans in the Indochinese Peninsula and introduce new migration routes into the area. The sedimentary context of TPL is described and refined elsewhere, resulting in an approximate age of 44–63 ka for the TPL1 and TPL2 fossils and a maximu...