Isotopic evidence for initial coastal colonization and subsequent diversification in the human occupation of Wallacea
Roberts, Patrick (The University of Queensland. School of Social Science)
Louys, Julien (Griffith University. Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Environmental Futures Research Institute)
Zech, Jana (Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Department of Archaeology)
Shipton, Ceri (Australian National University. ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage)
Kealy, Shimona (Australian National University. ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage)
Samper Carro, Sofia Cristina (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Hawkins, Stuart (Australian National University. ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage)
Boulanger, Clara (Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle. Département Homme et Environment)
Marzo, Sara (Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Department of Archaeology)
Fiedler, Bianca (Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Department of Archaeology)
Boivin, Nicole (Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Department of Archaeology)
Mahirta, Mahirta (Universitas Gadjah Mada. Department of Archaeology)
Aplin, Ken (The Australian National University. School of Culture, History and Language)
OʼConnor, Sue (Australian National University. ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage)

Fecha:	2020
Resumen:	The resource-poor, isolated islands of Wallacea have been considered a major adaptive obstacle for hominins expanding into Australasia. Archaeological evidence has hinted that coastal adaptations in Homo sapiens enabled rapid island dispersal and settlement; however, there has been no means to directly test this proposition. Here, we apply stable carbon and oxygen isotope analysis to human and faunal tooth enamel from six Late Pleistocene to Holocene archaeological sites across Wallacea. The results demonstrate that the earliest human forager found in the region c. 42,000 years ago made significant use of coastal resources prior to subsequent niche diversification shown for later individuals. We argue that our data provides clear insights into the huge adaptive flexibility of our species, including its ability to specialize in the use of varied environments, particularly in comparison to other hominin species known from Island Southeast Asia. There has been substantial debate of how hominins colonized Australasia through Wallacea, including their ability to utilize marine vs. terrestrial resources. Here, Roberts et al. use stable carbon and oxygen isotopes to reconstruct temporal shifts in the diets of early human inhabitants of Alor and Timor.
Ayudas:	European Commission 850709
Nota:	Ajuts: For permission to conduct fieldwork, we thank the Secretaria do Estado da Arte e Cultura, Timor-Leste, and the Indonesian Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education (RISTEK) Foreign Research Permit Division (S.O'.C. 1172/FRP/E5/Dit.KI/V/ 2016). This project was funded by the Max Planck Society, a European Research Council Starter Grant awarded to P.R. (no. 850709), an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship awarded to S.O'.C. (FL120100156), and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CE170100015). We would like to thank the landowners and villagers of Alor and Timor-Leste, staff and students from the Universitas Gadja Mada, Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional, and Balai Arkeologi Bali for their assistance in the field. We also thank CartoGIS ANU for their assistance.
Derechos:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Lengua:	Anglès
Documento:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Materia:	Anthropology ; Archaeology
Publicado en:	Nature communications, Vol. 11 (april 2020) , ISSN 2041-1723

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15969-4
PMID: 32350284

11 p, 1.3 MB

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