Southeast Asia was first reached by anatomically modern humans possibly before 70,000 years ago.[1] Anatomically modern humans are suggested to have reached Southeast Asia twice in the course of the Southern Dispersal migrations during and after the formation of a distinct East Asian clade from 70,000 to 50,000 years ago.[2][3]
In Asia, the most recent late archaic human fossils were found in China (125-100 ka), the Philippines (58-24 ka), Malaysia (c. 40 ka), and Sri Lanka (c.36 ka).[4] The artifacts from these sites include partial skeleton, crania, deep skull, and other related skeletons indicate that modern human migrated to Asia earlier than the western theory might have discussed.[5]
In 2007, an analysis of cut marks on two bovid bones found in Sangiran, showed them to have been made 1.5 to 1.6 million years ago by clamshell tools. This may be the oldest evidence for the presence of early humans in today Indonesia and are to date the oldest evidence of shell tool use in the world.[6]
In 2009, archaeologists discovered the partial cranium and some teeth of a modern human at Tam Pa Ling in mainland Laos, which shed light on the understanding of anatomically modern human migration and evolution in the region during the Late Pleistocene Period.[5] The site is located in Houaphanh Province, around 170 miles north of Vientiane, the capital city of modern Laos. Within this site, only human remains were found, and there is no evidence of human occupation or other artifacts. The radiocarbon dating of the charcoal and the sediment dating analyses identify the remains to date at least c. 56.5 ka, while the dental artifacts from the remains that analyzed by the isotope-ratio measurement indicate c. 63.6 ka.[5] The analysis of the cranium and dentition of the remains suggest that these are the remains of early modern human populations in Southeast Asia. This date is older than the fossils that were found in Niah cave in Malaysia, which offers another explanation for human evolution in Southeast Asia.
In addition to the discovery in Laos, there are also a number of human remains and related artifacts found across mainland Southeast Asia in which it suggests the new ideas of the regional Late Pleistocene development as well. More teeth and molars that were found in Thailand and Vietnam sites (Tham Wihan Naki, Thailand; Tham Kuyean, Vietnam, etc.) indicate transitions between H. erectus and H. sapiens.[7] In fact, these remains might indicate the possible interbreeding between H. erectus and H. sapiens, such as the tooth at Wihan Nakin at Chaiyaphum province in Thailand.[7]
The earliest modern human inhabitants of Southeast Asia were hunter-gatherers that arrived in the area at least c. 40,000 BP. Contemporary remnant groups of these earliest inhabitants (e.g. the Semang of Malaysia or the Aetas of the Philippines) are usually included under the cover term "Negrito".[8] The earliest settlers had sufficient maritime technology to cross the Wallace Line, probably at a similar date to the first settlement of Sahul (c. 45,000 BP/49,000 – 43,000 BP).[9]: 50
The proposed route of Austroasiatic and Austronesian migration into Insular Southeast Asia during the Neolithic period. (Simanjuntak, 2017)[11]
During the Neolithic, Austroasiatic peoples populated Indochina via land routes. The earliest agricultural societies that cultivated millet and wet-rice emerged around 1700 BCE in the lowlands and river floodplains of Indochina.[12] Based on archaeological and genetic evidence, it is assumed that Austroasiatic speakers also expanded into Insular Southeast Asia in the Neolithic, but were later supplanted or assimilated by Austronesian speakers.[11]
The widespread presence of Kra-Dai, Tibeto-Burman, and Hmong-Mien speakers in Mainland Southeast Asia is the result of later migrations. Originating from southern China, where many languages of these families are still spoken, they expanded southwards into Southeast Asia in historical times around the second half of the first millennium CE.[8]
Territorial principalities in both Insular and Mainland Southeast Asia, characterised as Agrarian kingdoms[20] had by around 500 BCE developed an economy based on surplus crop cultivation and moderate coastal trade of domestic natural products. Several states of the Malayan-Indonesian "thalassian" zone[21] shared these characteristics with Indochinese polities like the Pyu city-states in the Irrawaddy river valley, Van Lang in the Red River delta and Funan around the lower Mekong.[22] Văn Lang, founded in the 7th century BCE endured until 258 BCE under the rule of the Hồng Bàng dynasty, as part of the Đông Sơn culture eventually sustained a dense and organised population, that produced an elaborate Bronze Age industry.[23][24]
Intensive wet-rice cultivation in an ideal climate enabled the farming communities to produce a regular crop surplus, that was used by the ruling elite to raise, command and pay work forces for public construction and maintenance projects such as canals and fortifications.[23][21] Though millet and rice cultivation was introduced around 2000 BCE, hunting and gathering remained an important aspect of food provision, in particular in forested and mountainous inland areas.[25]
Estimated ancestry components among selected modern populations per Changmai et al (2022). The yellow component represents East Asian-like ancestry.[30]Principal component analysis (PCA) of ancient and present-day individuals from worldwide populations after the out-of-Africa expansion.
One study (Chaubey 2015) found evidence for ancient gene flow from East Asian-related groups into the Andamanese people, suggesting that Andamanese (Onge) had about 30% East Asian-related ancestry next to their original Negrito ancestry, though the authors also suggest that this latter finding may in fact reflect the genetic affinity of the Andamanese to Melanesian, Southeast Asian, and Asian Negrito populations rather than true East Asian admixture (stating that "The Han ancestry measured in Andaman Negrito is probably partially capturing both Melanesian and Malaysian Negrito ancestry"),[31] as a previous study by the authors (Chaubey et al.) indicated "a deep common ancestry" between Andamanese, Melanesians and other Negrito groups (as well as South Asians), and an affinity between Southeast Asian Negritos and Melanesians with East Asians.[32]
A 2020 genetic study on Southeast Asian populations focusing on ethnic groups in Vietnam by Liu et al. 2020 found that most sampled groups are closely related to East Asians and carry mostly "East Asian-related" ancestry. Modern Austronesian and Austroasiatic speaking populationsofSoutheast Asia were found to have mostly East Asian-related ancestry (89% to 96%, with 94% on average). Taiwanese indigenous peoples had on average 99% East Asian-related ancestry. Kra–Dai-speaking populations had, similar to the Taiwanese indigenous peoples, nearly exclusively East Asian-related ancestry.[33]
A recent study from 2021 found that an ancient Holocene hunter-gatherer from South Sulawesi had ancestry from both a distinct lineage related to modern Papuans and Aboriginal Australians and from the East-Eurasian lineage (represented by modern East Asians). The hunter-gatherer individual had approximately ~50% "Basal-East Asian" ancestry, and was positioned in between modern East Asians and Papuans of Oceania. The authors concluded that East Asian-related ancestry expanded much earlier into Maritime Southeast Asia than previously suggested, long before the expansion of Austroasiatic and Austronesian groups.[34]
Another study about the ancestral composition of modern ethnic groups in the Philippines from 2021 suggests that distinctive Basal-East Asian (East-Eurasian) ancestry originated in Mainland Southeast Asia at ~50,000BC, and expanded through multiple migration waves southwards and northwards respectively.[3]
A 2022 study stated that there was substantial South Asian admixture (~ 2%-16%) in various Southeast Asian populations in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar and Singapore. Exceptions were isolated hill tribes and present hunter-gatherer groups in Thailand. This admixture was the result of Indian cultural influence in the region.[35]
^Different dates are argued for the introduction of the various pieces of maritime technology by Austronesians. These are based on linguistics and the distribution of types on first European encounter. There is no early archaeological evidence, and little iconographic or written evidence on this until the first encounters with Europeans
^Lipson, Mark; Reich, David (2017). "A Working Model of the Deep Relationships of Diverse Modern Human Genetic Lineages Outside of Africa". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 34 (4): 889–902. doi:10.1093/molbev/msw293. PMC5400393. PMID28074030. The former [eastern clade] includes present-day East Asians and had differentiated as early as the ~40 kya Tianyuan individual (Fu et al. 2013), while early members of the latter [western clade] include ancient European hunter-gatherers (Lazaridis et al. 2014; Seguin-Orlando et al. 2014; Fu et al. 2016) and the ancient northern Eurasian Mal'ta 1 (MA1, a ~24 kya Upper Paleolithic individual from south-central Siberia) (Raghavan et al. 2014). More recent (Neolithic and later) western Eurasians, such as Europeans, are mostly descended from the western clade but with an additional component of "Basal Eurasian" ancestry (via the Near East) splitting more deeply than any other known non-African lineage (Lazaridis et al. 2014, 2016). The timing of the eastern/western split is uncertain, but several papers (Gutenkunst et al. 2009; Laval et al. 2010; Gravel et al. 2011) have used present-day European and East Asian populations to infer dates of initial separation of 40–45 kya (adjusted for a mutation rate of 0.5 × 10−9 per year; Scally 2016).
^Barker, Graeme; Barton, Huw; Bird, Michael; Daly, Patrick; Datan, Ipoi; Dykes, Alan; Farr, Lucy; Gilbertson, David; Harrisson, Barbara (2007-03-01). "The 'human revolution' in lowland tropical Southeast Asia: the antiquity and behavior of anatomically modern humans at Niah Cave (Sarawak, Borneo)". Journal of Human Evolution. 52 (3): 243–261. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2006.08.011. PMID17161859.
^ abMarwick, Ben (2009-06-01). "Biogeography of Middle Pleistocene hominins in mainland Southeast Asia: A review of current evidence". Quaternary International. Great Arc of Human DispersalGreat Arc of Human Dispersal. 202 (1–2): 54–55. Bibcode:2009QuInt.202...51M. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2008.01.012.
^Mahdi, Waruno (2016). "2. Origins of Southeast Asian Shipping and Maritime Communication Across the Indian Ocean". In Campbell, Gwyn (ed.). Early exchange between Africa and the wider Indian Ocean world. Cham: Springer Nature, Switzerland. ISBN978-3-319-33821-7.
^Hall, Kenneth R. A History of Early Southeast Asia: Maritime Trade and Societal Development, 100-1500.
^Boivin, Nicole; Crowther, Alison; Helm, Richard; Fuller, Dorian Q. (1 September 2013). "East Africa and Madagascar in the Indian Ocean world". Journal of World Prehistory. 26 (3): 213–281. doi:10.1007/s10963-013-9067-4. S2CID254749340.
^Brides of the sea : port cities of Asia from the 16th-20th centuries. Broeze, Frank. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. 1989. ISBN978-0824812669. OCLC19554419.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^Mahdi W (1999). "The Dispersal of Austronesian boat forms in the Indian Ocean". In Blench R, Spriggs M (eds.). Archaeology and Language III: Artefacts languages, and texts. One World Archaeology. Vol. 34. Routledge. pp. 144–179. ISBN978-0415100540.
^Carlhoff, Selina; Duli, Akin; Nägele, Kathrin; Nur, Muhammad; Skov, Laurits; Sumantri, Iwan; Oktaviana, Adhi Agus; Hakim, Budianto; Burhan, Basran; Syahdar, Fardi Ali; McGahan, David P. (August 2021). "Genome of a middle Holocene hunter-gatherer from Wallacea". Nature. 596 (7873): 543–547. Bibcode:2021Natur.596..543C. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03823-6. hdl:10072/407535. ISSN1476-4687. PMC8387238. PMID34433944. The qpGraph analysis confirmed this branching pattern, with the Leang Panninge individual branching off from the Near Oceanian clade after the Denisovan gene flow, although with the most supported topology indicating around 50% of a basal East Asian component contributing to the Leang Panninge genome (Fig. 3c, Supplementary Figs. 7–11).
Bellwood, Peter (2021). "Homelands and dispersal histories of Mainland Southeast Asian language families: a multidisciplinary perspective". In Paul Sidwell; Mathias Jenny (eds.). The Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 33–44. doi:10.1515/9783110558142-003. ISBN9783110558142. S2CID238695185.