| Abstract: |
During the last Ice Age, the sea level was over 100 meters lower than at present, and a vast low-lying continent, known as Sundaland, stretched from the Gulf of Siam to northern Borneo and eastern Java. This allowed transit to Australia, and presumably settlement, by the Anatomically Modern Humans who expanded out of Africa at least 60,000 years ago. With global warming, the sea rose higher than its present level, and by 5,000 years ago, it was forming raised beaches. Being a particularly rich environment, these attracted settlement. Excavations of two sites, Nong Nor and Khok Phanom Di, have illuminated hunter-gatherer adaptations to a marine environment that contrasts radically with that of the small groups of foragers identified in inland rock shelters. The hunter gatherers of Khok Phanom Di, however, were overtaken when Neolithic rice farmers occupied the site.
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