Abstract
The Hoabinhian is a distinctive Pleistocene stone artifact technology of mainland and island Southeast Asia. Its relationships to key patterns of technological change both at a global scale and in adjacent regions such as East Asia, South Asia, and Australia are currently poorly understood. These key patterns are important indicators of evolutionary and demographic change in human prehistory, so our understanding of the Hoabinhian may be substantially enhanced by examining these relationships. In this paper I present new evidence of ancient Hoabinhian technology from northwest Thailand and examine connections between Hoabinhian technology and the innovation of other important Pleistocene technological processes such as radial core geometry. I present some claims about the evolutionary significance of the Hoabinhian and recommend future research priorities.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ambrose, S. H. (1998). Late Pleistocene human population bottlenecks, volcanic winter, and differentiation of modern humans. Journal of Human Evolution, 34(6), 623–651.
Ambrose, S. H. (2001). Paleolithic technology and human evolution. Science, 291(5509), 1748–1753.
Anderson, D. D. (1997). Cave archaeology in Southeast Asia. Geoarchaeology, 12(6), 607–638.
Appenzeller, T. (2012). Human migrations: Eastern odyssey. Nature, 485(7396), 24–26.
Atkinson, Q. D., Gray, R. D., & Drummond, A. J. (2008). mtDNA variation predicts population size in humans and reveals a major Southern Asian chapter in human prehistory. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 25, 468–474.
Bar-Yosef, O., Eren, M. I., Yuan, J., Cohen, D. J., & Li, Y. (2012). Were bamboo tools made in prehistoric Southeast Asia? An experimental view from South China. Quaternary International, 269, 9–21.
Boëda, E., Hou, Y. M., Forestier, H., Sarel, J., & Wang, H. M. (2013). Levallois and non-Levallois blade production at Shuidonggou in Ningxia, North China. Quaternary International, 295, 191–203.
Brantingham, P. J., Krivoshapkin, A. I., Jinzeng, L., & Tserendagva, Y. (2001). The initial upper paleolithic in northeast Asia. Current Anthropology, 42(5), 735–747.
Brumm, A., Aziz, F., van den Bergh, G. D., Morwood, M. J., Moore, M. W., Kurniawan, I., Hobbs, D. R., & Fullagar, R. (2006). Early stone technology on Flores and its implications for Homo floresiensis. Nature, 441(7093), 624–628.
Brumm, A., Kurniawan, I., Moore, M. W., Suyono, S., Jatmiko, R., Morwood, M. J., & Aziz, F. (2009). Early Pleistocene stone technology at Mata Menge, central Flores, Indonesia. In F. Aziz, M. J. Morwood, & G. D. van den Bergh (Eds.), Pleistocene geology, palaeontology and archaeology of the Soa Basin, Central Flores, Indonesia (pp. 119–137). Bandung: Geological Survey Institute Bandung. Special Publication 36.
Brumm, A., & Moore, M. W. (2005). Symbolic revolutions and the Australian archaeological record. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 15(2), 157–175.
Brumm, A., Moore, M. W., van den Bergh, G. D., Kurniawan, I., Morwood, M. J., & Aziz, F. (2010). Stone technology at the Middle Pleistocene site of Mata Menge, Flores, Indonesia. Journal of Archaeological Science, 37(3), 451–473.
Buchanan, B., Collard, M., & Edinborough, K. (2008). Paleoindian demography and the extraterrestrial impact hypothesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(33), 11651–11654.
Chitkament, T., Gaillard, C., & Shoocongdej, R. (2015). Tham Lod rockshelter (Pang Mapha district, north-western Thailand): Evolution of the lithic assemblages during the late Pleistocene. Quaternary International, 416, 151–161.
Clarkson, C., Jones, S., & Harris, C. (2012). Continuity and change in the lithic industries of the Jurreru Valley, India, before and after the Toba eruption. Quaternary International, 258, 165–179.
Clarkson, C., Petraglia, M., Korisettar, R., Haslam, M., Boivin, N., Crowther, A., Ditchfield, P., Fuller, D., Miracle, P., & Harris, C. (2009). The oldest and longest enduring microlithic sequence in India: 35 000 years of modern human occupation and change at the Jwalapuram Locality 9 rockshelter. Antiquity, 83(320), 326–348.
Collard, M., Kemery, M., & Banks, S. (2005). Causes of toolkit variation among hunter-gatherers: a test of four competing hypotheses. Canadian Journal of Archaeology, 29, 1–19.
Derevianko, A. P. (2011). Three scenarios of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition: Scenario 2: The Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in continental East Asia. Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia, 39(1), 2–27.
Foley, R., & Lahr, M. M. (2003). On stony ground: Lithic technology, human evolution, and the emergence of culture. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 12(3), 109–122.
Gao, X., & Norton, C. J. (2002). A critique of the Chinese ‘Middle Palaeolithic’. Antiquity, 76(292), 397–412.
Gorman, C. (1972). Excavations at Spirit Cave, North Thailand: Some interim interpretations. Asian Perspectives, 13, 79–107.
Henrich, J. (2004). Demography and cultural evolution: How adaptive cultural processes can produce maladaptive losses-The Tasmanian case. American Antiquity, 69(2), 197–214.
Hiscock, P., Clarkson, C., & Mackay, A. (2011). Big debates over little tools: ongoing disputes over microliths on three continents. World Archaeology, 43(4), 653–664.
Hou, Y.-M., Yang, S.-X., Dong, W., Zhang, J.-F., & Liu, Y. (2013). Late Pleistocene representative sites in North China and their indication of evolutionary human behavior. Quaternary International, 295, 183–190.
Hou, Y. M. (2003). Naming and preliminary study on the category of the “Donggutuo core”. Acta Anthropologica Sinica, 22(4), 79–292.
Jérémie, S., & Vacher, S. (1992). Le Hoabinhien en Thaïlande: un exemple d’approche expérimentale. Bulletin de l’Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient, 79(1), 173–209.
Ji, X., Kuman, K., Clarke, R. J., Forestier, H., Li, Y., Ma, J., Qiu, K., Li, H., & Wu, Y. (2016). The oldest Hoabinhian technocomplex in Asia (43.5 ka) at Xiaodong rockshelter, Yunnan Province, southwest China. Quaternary International, 400, 166–174.
Kelchner, S. A. (2013). Higher level phylogenetic relationships within the bamboos (Poaceae: Bambusoideae) based on five plastid markers. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 67(2), 404–413.
Langley, M. C., Clarkson, C., & Ulm, S. (2011). From small holes to grand narratives: the impact of taphonomy and sample size on the modernity debate in Australia and New Guinea. Journal of Human Evolution, 61(2), 197–208.
Lycett, S. J. (2007). Why is there a lack of Mode 3 Levallois technologies in East Asia? A phylogenetic test of the Movius-Schick hypothesis. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 26(4), 541–575.
Marwick, B. (2008). Stone artefacts and human ecology at two Rockshelters in NorthwestThailand. Unpublished PhD, The Australian National University.
Marwick, B. (2013). Multiple optima in Hoabinhian flaked stone artefact palaeoeconomics and palaeoecology at two archaeological sites in Northwest Thailand. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 32(4), 553–564.
Marwick, B. (2017). Computational reproducibility in archaeological research: Basic principles and a case study of their implementation. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 24(2), 424–450.
Marwick, B., Clarkson, C., O’Connor, S., & Collins, S. (2016). Early modern human lithic technology from Jerimalai, East Timor. Journal of Human Evolution, 101, 45–64.
Marwick, B., & Gagan, M. K. (2011). Late Pleistocene monsoon variability in northwest Thailand: An oxygen isotope sequence from the bivalve Margaritanopsis laosensis excavated in Mae Hong Son province. Quaternary Science Reviews, 30(21–22), 3088–3098.
Matthews, J. M. (1966). A review of the ‘Hoabinhian’ in Indo-China. Asian Perspectives, 9, 86–95.
Mellars, P. (2006). Going east: New genetic and archaeological perspectives on the modern human colonization of Eurasia. Science, 313(5788), 796.
Mellars, P., Gori, K. C., Carr, M., Soares, P. A., & Richards, M. B. (2013). Genetic and archaeological perspectives on the initial modern human colonization of southern Asia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(26), 10699–10704.
Moncel, M.-H., Arzarello, M., Boëda, E., Bonilauri, T., Chevrier, B., Gaillard, C., Forestier, H., Yinghua, L., Sémah, F., & Zeitoun, V. (2017). Assemblages with bifacial tools in Eurasia (second part). What is going on in the East? Data from India, Eastern Asia and Southeast Asia. Comptes Rendus Palevol. doi:10.1016/j.crpv.2015.09.010.
Moore, M. W., Sutikna, T., Morwood, M. J., & Brumm, A. (2009). Continuities in stone flaking technology at Liang Bua, Flores, Indonesia. Journal of Human Evolution, 57(5), 503–526.
Moser, J. (2001). Hoabinhian: Geographie und Chronologie eines steinzeitlichen Technocomplexes in Südostasien. Lindensoft: Köln.
Moser, J. (2012). The Hoabinhian definition—In the past and today: a short historical review of defining the Hoabinhian. In Crossing Borders: Selected Papers from the 13th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists (Vol. 1). Singapore. NUS Press.
Murray, D. C., Haile, J., Dortch, J., White, N. E., Haouchar, D., Bellgard, M. I., Allcock, R. J., Prideaux, G. J., & Bunce, M. (2013). Scrapheap challenge: A novel bulk-bone metabarcoding method to investigate ancient DNA in faunal assemblages. Scientific Reports, 3(3371), 1–8.
O’Connor, S. (2007). New evidence from East Timor contributes to our understanding of earliest modern human colonisation east of the Sunda Shelf. Antiquity, 81(313), 523–535.
O’Connor, S., & Bulbeck, D. (2014). Homo sapiens societies in Indoneasia and South-Eastern Asia. In V. Cummings, P. Jordan, & M. Zvelebil (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of the archaeology and anthropology of hunter-gatherers (pp. 346–367). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
O’Connor, S., Ono, R., & Clarkson, C. (2011). Pelagic fishing at 42,000 years before the present and the maritime skills of modern humans. Science, 334(6059), 1117–1121.
Pei, S., Gao, X., Wang, H., Kuman, K., Bae, C. J., Chen, F., Guan, Y., Zhang, Y., Zhang, X., Peng, F., & Li, X. (2012). The Shuidonggou site complex: new excavations and implications for the earliest Late Paleolithic in North China. Journal of Archaeological Science, 39(12), 3610–3626.
Perera, N., Kourampas, N., Simpson, I. A., Deraniyagala, S. U., Bulbeck, D., Kamminga, J., Perera, J., Fuller, D. Q., Szabó, K., & Oliveira, N. V. (2011). People of the ancient rainforest: Late Pleistocene foragers at the Batadomba-lena rockshelter, Sri Lanka. Journal of Human Evolution, 61(3), 254–269.
Petraglia, M., Clarkson, C., Boivin, N., Haslam, M., Korisettar, R., Chaubey, G., Ditchfield, P., Fuller, D. Q., James, H., Jones, S., Kivisild, T., Koshy, J., Lahr, M. M., Metspalu, M., Roberts, R., & Arnold, L. (2009). Population increase and environmental deterioration correspond with microlithic innovations in South Asia ca. 35,000 years ago. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(30), 12261–12266.
Petraglia, M., Korisettar, R., Boivin, N., Clarkson, C., Ditchfield, P., Jones, S., Koshy, J., Lahr, M. M., Oppenheimer, C., Pyle, D., Roberts, R., Schwenninger, J.-L., Arnold, L., & White, K. (2007). Middle Paleolithic assemblages from the Indian subcontinent before and after the Toba Super-Eruption. Science, 317(5834), 114–116.
Pope, G. G. (1989). Bamboo and human evolution. Natural History, 98(10), 48–56.
Reepmeyer, C., O’Connor, S., & Brockwell, S. (2011). Long-term obsidian use at the Jerimalai rock shelter in East Timor. Archaeology in Oceania, 46(2), 85–90.
Schick, K., Toth, N., Qi, W., Clark, J. D., & Etler, D. (1991). Archaeological perspectives in the Nihewan Basin, China. Journal of Human Evolution, 21(1), 13–26.
Schick, K. D. (2002). A comparative perspective on Paleolithic cultural patterns. In T. Akazawa, K. Aoki, & O. Bar-Yosef (Eds.), Neandertals and modern humans in Western Asia (pp. 449–460). Dordrecht: Springer.
Shennan, S. (2001). Demography and cultural innovation: A model and its implications for the emergence of modern human culture. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 11(1), 5–16.
Storey, M., Roberts, R. G., & Saidin, M. (2012). Astronomically calibrated 40Ar/39Ar age for the Toba supereruption and global synchronization of late Quaternary records. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(46), 18684–18688.
Van Tan, H. (1997). The Hoabinhian and before. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association (Chiang Mai Papers, Volume 3), 16, 35–41.
Wang, H., Deng, C., Zhu, R., Wei, Q., Hou, Y., & Boëda, E. (2005). Magnetostratigraphic dating of the Donggutuo and Maliang Paleolithic sites in the Nihewan Basin, North China. Quaternary Research, 64(1), 1–11.
Wang, Y. J., Cheng, H., Edwards, R. L., An, Z. S., Wu, J. Y., Shen, C. C., & Dorale, J. A. (2001). A high-resolution absolute-dated Late Pleistocene monsoon record from Hulu Cave, China. Science, 294(5550), 2345–2348.
West, J. A., & Louys, J. (2007). Differentiating bamboo from stone tool cut marks in the zooarchaeological record, with a discussion on the use of bamboo knives. Journal of Archaeological Science, 34(4), 512–518.
Yang, X., & Scuderi, L. A. (2010). Hydrological and climatic changes in deserts of China since the Late Pleistocene. Quaternary Research, 73(1), 1–9.
Zeitoun, V., Forestier, H., Pierret, A., Chiemsisouraj, C., Lorvankham, M., Latthagnot, A., Chanthamoungkhoun, T., & Norkhamsomphou, S. (2012). Multi-millennial occupation in northwestern Laos: Preliminary results of excavations at the Ngeubhinh Mouxeu rock-shelter. Comptes Rendus Palevol, 11(4), 305–313.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Rasmi Shoocongedej for the opportunity to be involved in the work at Tham Lod, to Sue O’Connor for the access to the Jerimalai lithic assemblage, to Ya-Mei Hou for the advice on the Donggutuo assemblage, and to Scot Kelchner for the advice on bamboo phylogenetics. Any errors remain my own.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Marwick, B. (2018). The Hoabinhian of Southeast Asia and its Relationship to Regional Pleistocene Lithic Technologies. In: Robinson, E., Sellet, F. (eds) Lithic Technological Organization and Paleoenvironmental Change. Studies in Human Ecology and Adaptation, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64407-3_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64407-3_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-64405-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-64407-3
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)