| Abstract: |
This chapter presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents a multidisciplinary reconstruction of the biological and cultural migrations of the inhabitants of Island Southeast Asia during the past 1.5 million years, finishing on the eve of the early historical Indic and Islamic kingdoms and religions between 500 and 1500 CE. The basic structure of the book still revolves around the technological phase, or 'age', system that has underpinned Eurasian archaeology since the nineteenth century. The Pleistocene biogeography of Island Southeast Asia is better understood now than 20 years ago, especially in terms of the glacial–postglacial fluctuations in sea level, temperature, and rainfall during the past 100,000 years. There have also been considerable strides in the craniometric analysis and absolute dating of many early modern human (Homo sapiens) remains from Late Pleistocene contexts.
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