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BC – AD 500. Existing evidence from Bali for early contacts with India, China and SEAsian centres, as well as the potential for water-logged materials including
eastern Indonesian spices at the harbour site of Sembiran, place us in a position to mark the strategic signiicance of Bali and eastern Indonesia for the rise and trade
dynamics of long-distance networks. A comparative study of materials across SEA will shed new light on long standing questions of transmission and technology.
37.1 Dr. Ambra Calo
Warga Negara : Italia
Jabatan : Research Fellow
Institusi : Australian National University ANU
No. SIP : 42EXTSIPFRPSMV2013
37.2 Dr. Jack Neil Fenner
Warga Negara : Amerika Serikat
Jabatan : Research Fellow
Institusi : Australian National University ANU
No. SIP : 50EXTSIPFRPSMVI2013
38. In search for the irst Asian hominins : Sedimentology, Paleontology and Dating of Pleistocene Fossil Vertebrate Faunas and Open
Occupation Sites in Flores and Sulawesi
Tujuan Penellitian : Melakukan penggalian, survey geologi dan rekonstruksi lingkungan deposit Pleistocene
Bidang Penelitian : Arkeologi dan Geologi
Daerah Penelitian : NTT Soa Basin di Kab. Ngada, Kab. Ende, Maumere, Larantuka, Sulteng Lembah Walanae, Watansoppeng,
Bone
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Sekretariat Perizinan Penelitian Asing Kementerian Riset dan Teknologi
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Lama Penelitian : 12 dua belas bulan mulai 28 September 2013 Pusat
Survei Geologi, Badan Geologi Kementerian ESDM Suyono,ST.,M.Sc., Erick Setiyabudi dan Iwan Kurniawan
Abstrak
At present the prevailing model for early hominin evolution and dispersal assumes that the genus Homo originated in Africa at least 2.33 Ma ago and that
Homo erectus was the irst to disperse into Eurasia about 1.7–1.9 Ma ago; and that the migrants were large-brained and essentially modern in stature and body
proportions. However, recent discoveries, especially at Dmanisi in Georgia and Liang Bua on the Indonesian island of Flores, indicate how little is known about
when hominins irst occupied Asia or the species involved. These diferences also challenge all key assumptions in the ‘Out of Africa 1’ Model. This Project will target
the site Mata Menge in the Soa Basin of Flores, where there are well preserved faunal remains associated with evidence of Middle Pleistocene hominin
occupation; where distribution of early hominin activities across the basin provides insights into their adaptive behavior. Although there is a long history of
research in the basin, we engage in a level of inter-disciplinary investigation and scale of excavation not attempted previously on Flores, and seldom in Southeast
Asia.
Furthermore, given evidence on Flores for a Late Pleistocene, endemic species, Homo loresiensis, the discovery of hominin remains from the Soa Basin will have
major implications for the evolutionary history of hominins on the island. And, because of the unique circumstances of Flores as a refuge for faunal lineages long
extinct elsewhere, the outcome of our research may have paradigm-changing implications for the biogeography of early hominins in Asia, and for ancient
dispersal events of hominins out of Africa
The project will also explore other Indonesian islands that may have played a crucial role in the dispersal of hominins from Asia into island SE Asia and beyond,
into Australia. We have focused in particular on the large island of Sulawesi, which has been disconnected from the Asian mainland since at least the Eocene, and
where initial results suggest an early hominin occupation.
In addition, our research aims at unraveling the faunal evolution of Flores and other islands, with particular focus on the elephants and their relatives. Excavations at
Mata Menge have yielded an unprecedented collection of fossils of Stegodon and
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other insular animals, that can shed light on the evolutionary processes at work on an island. The rich fossil record on Flores covers a period from more than 1 million
years to recent. This allows to investigate in detail a phenomenon called “the Island Rule”, which predicts that large mammals such as elephants will evolve smaller
body sizes and small mammals such as rodents becoming larger. This topic is hotly debated in the recent literature, not in the least because it has been argued
that Homo loresiensis it self represents an insular dwarf species. The well-dated faunal sequence on Flores ofers an unique opportunities to test such models.
38.1 Mr. Gerrit Dirk Van den Bergh, Ph.D.
