The palaeolithic in Indonesia: Nature and chronology

The Indonesian Palaeolithic has been poorly described up topresent beyond early descriptive monographies (e.g;van Heekeren,1972 ) as in many of neighbouring countries, a fact which might belinked to its geographical and chronological complexity. Undera chronological perspective, the period related to the ‘Oldesthuman expansions in Eurasia’ can be connected to the life-span ofHomo erectussince 1.5 Ma. Under a spatial perspective, the sites’distribution shows that ‘archaic’ Palaeolithic traditions (e.g. pebbletools and flake assemblages) developed from Sumatra in the westto the Moluccas in the east (such assemblages have not been foundin Papua). The related assemblages question the processes ofhuman dispersals within the archipelagos, and the role of theadaptation to (sometimes local) environmental stress factors in thedevelopment of possible traditions.Among the parameters which impact the identification of thesites and the collection of data are:The location of the sites in the landscape, usually near riverstreams that tend to alter the context (archaeological remainsare often reworked) and the artefacts (that become damaged orfragmented).The difficulty to precisely spot and correlate the artefact-bearing layers in the stratigraphies (e.g. the Sangiran WorldHeritage site in Central Java).The palaeogeographic history (noticeably influenced by climateand sea-level fluctuations during the Pleistocene) resulted intospecific local conditions and hence local specialisations ofhuman groups, especially regarding natural resources thatmight have led to the development of specific tools made ofdifferent raw materials.Ongoing research has made improvements, and it thereforeappeared interesting, in the framework of a conference about theEarly Human Dispersals in Eurasia, to present a factual state of theart about ‘old’ Palaeolithic industries in Indonesia, includinghistorical and more recent discoveries, as well as the orientation ofcurrent research in the frame of the most widely debated questions.