Southeast Asia is one of the world's population centers with 590 million people living in this area. But who are the oldest of modern humans in this region?
Anthropology researchers from the University of Illinois found the answer. They found that modern human skulls excavated from a cave in the Annamite Mountains of Laos. Age fossils estimated at 63 thousand years.
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| The researchers found skull fragments that date to 63,000 years ago. (Picture from: http://phys.org/) |
"This is the oldest of modern man in Southeast Asia," said anthropologist from the University of Illinois, Laura Shackelford, who participated in this study.
The discovery of the skull withdraw timeline history of human migration into the lush equatorial region is 20 thousand years earlier.
Shackelford with the team that discovered the skull in 2009 as part of the first archaeological excavation project in Laos since 1900. The team also found some human remains another cave in the mountains of the Annamite which occupies the area of 16 thousand years ago.
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| A reconstruction of the 63,000-year-old modern human skull that found in Laos. (Picture from: http://www.sci-news.com/) |
She said archaeologists had previously discovered human fossils in China and some of the islands in Southeast Asia. The fossils claimed was nearly the same as the man of the Annamite. But, he said, scientists are still skeptical about the accuracy of the measurement of the age of the fossils. Not to mention some of the fossil does not show the physical traits of modern humans, "Age fossils from the Annamite been calculated properly and has the physical traits of modern humans," said Shackelford.
Certainty physical characteristics known through reconstruction and in-depth examination of the skull. Meanwhile, the certainty of life is determined by calculating the content of uranium and thorium which showed the skull was 63 thousand years old. Unfortunately, there were no artifacts in the cave where the discovery. This indicates that location is not a shelter or burial site.
The team described its finding in a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. *** [SCI-NEWS | ANTON WILLIAM | KORAN TEMPO 4014]
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