The emergence and distribution of early modern human in Indonesia

Abstract

How did early Anatomically Modern Human (Homo sapiens sapiens) appear on earth and then spread rapidly across the globe to the present day? There are two main stages of Homo sapiens’ evolution: (1) the archaic Homo sapiens lived since their initial appearance up to 150,000 years ago, and (2) anatomically modern Homo sapiens from 150,000 years ago to the present. The multiregional model argues there was a gradual and continuous evolutionary process from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens in every region of Africa and Eurasia. In contrast the “Out of Africa” evolutionary model, known as the “replacement” theory argued that the genetic roots of Homo sapiens were around 150,000 to 100,000 years ago originated from one place in Africa, and spread out in different directions, flourished, and replaced local archaic populations. This paper will discuss the presence of early anatomically modern human remains in Southeast Asia including Indonesia from around the second half of the Upper Pleistocene including Wajak man, Lida Ajer and Punung remains, also Flores hominin.