Les industries lithiques du Paléolithique tardif et du début de l'Holocène en Insulinde

Abstract

Two distinct entities, the Indonesian and Philippine archipelagos, make up island Southeast Asia - altogether a land surface of about 2 million square kilometers divided up by seas and straits into some 20 000 islands. The Indonesian Archipelago, centered on Java island, constitutes the transition between mainland Southeast Asia and island Southeast Asia, whereas Luzon island in the Philippines looks like a gate to Oceania through Micronesia. This geographical division of Southeast Asia leads to heterogeneity and diversity of knapped stone industries. The aim of this article is to present the different aspects of this diversity through a review of the major lithic assemblages in Indonesia and the Philippines. Between these two parts of the former Sundaland continent, we can identify similarities in some technotypological aspects of the Holocene sites, despite the more distinct identity of some Java and Sulawesi assemblages (respectively the Sampungian and Toalian levels). But the late Pleistocene period shows a clear difference between the two archipelagos, with the introduction in Indonesia (Sulawesi) of the discoid knapping method.