Problems in the stone age of south-east Asia

Reynolds, Tim (1993) Problems in the stone age of south-east Asia. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 59 , pp. 1-15. ISSN 0079-497X.

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0079497X00003728

Abstract

Whilst research has shown many faults with the Movius scheme of a Middle Pleistocene group of Chopper/Chopping tool industries in South-East Asia, it remains a fact that pebble tool industries are still the dominant characteristic of the South-East Asian record. Exploration has now revealed hundreds of Late Pleistocene and Holocene sites in Mainland South-East Asia and these are archaeologically very different from cave sites in Europe. Further problems exist with the current nomenclature of later industries, such as the Hoabinhian and the Neolithic, for there is a large amount of overlap between such assemblages. Should such factors as economy, site location, etc. be used to assist clarification of such problems? This paper outlines some of these issues and reveals that the pebble tool tradition as it is widely known in South-East Asia is a relatively recent phenomenon dating back to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). A possible reason for the change from flake to pebble tool industrial types and in the visibility of sites is the environmental changes and rise in sea level which submerged over half the available land area in the region during the Late Pleistocene. An existing broad spectrum system of exploitation was likely to have been intensified as a result of this.

Metadata

Item Type:	Article
School:	Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Historical Studies
Depositing User:	Sarah Hall
Date Deposited:	27 Mar 2017 09:22
Last Modified:	02 Aug 2023 17:32
URI:	https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/18474

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