Preliminary study of two deciduous human molars from the Late Pleistocene layers of Song Terus (East Java): A window into the last Homo erectus and the first Homo sapiens in Java

Abstract

Java is one of the oldest places outside Africa which was occupied by early humans, from the first ‘archaic’ Homo erectus after 1.8 ma to the progressive form around 70-40 ka. Up to now, paleoanthropologists do not know clearly when the anatomically modern human started to colonize this island. Some previous scholars proposed scenarios presumed this to be as early as 125 ka, or just after the big eruption of young Toba after 74 ka, or at last to the late glacial maximum about 21 ka. This research tries to answer the question about the history of human occupation in Java during the late Pleistocene. Two unpublished deciduous teeth of Song Terus site are considered: ST06 is dated back from older than 80 ka and another tooth ST04 is younger than 60 ka. We compared both specimens with Homo erectus s.l., Neanderthal, ancient and recent Homo sapiens, to identify their taxonomical position. Morphological and metrical comparative analysis of the external and internal dental characters were observed. The preliminary results show that ST04 is closed to Homo sapiens while ST06 belongs to the Homo erectus s.l. group. This result confirms that Homo erectus still survived at least until the beginning of the Late Pleistocene, during the last interglacial maximum period (125 ka). Moreover, it argues that Homo sapiens was present in Java Island just after the young Toba eruption 74 ka. The implication of this result could be the succession of chronological occupations between the last Homo erectus and early Homo sapiens in Southeast Asia.