| Abstract: |
This chapter discusses the evidence for the initial phases of settlement of Island Southeast sia by people, beginning with “archaic” humans (or “hominins”) with recognizably human characteristics but not identical to ourselves and ending with people who were fully modern in their anatomy and, it is thought, in their cognitive capacities (“modern humans”). Significant themes include the increasing complexity of the hominin landscape in the last 100,000 years, with modern humans at times sharing it with at least three other hominin species, the timing of their dispersals across the region and the complexity of the behaviours that underpinned this process. A range of subsistence technologies and practices were developed that enabled them to forage successfully in interior rainforest and colonize maritime environments, outcompeting other species. Plant and animal translocations are further evidence of their resourcefulness to meet ecological challenges encountered in their dispersals, as may be the increasing evidence for the richness of their conceptual or imaginative lives.
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