**4. Discussion**

#### **4.1 Island migration during the Pleistocene**

The current archeological evidences show that AMH who arrived in ISEA already possessed the ability for sea crossings over 80 km distance. They reached Wallacea and Sahul (Australia and New Guinea) by at least 50 to 45 ka, and by 40 to 30 ka had arrived at the Japanese and Ryuku Islands in maritime Asia. There is no material evidence for reconstructing the early seafaring technology including their vessels, although the authors found evidence for the processing of grassy plants potentially for the manufacture of cords, bindings and woven materials, such as baskets, nets and ropes from the traceological analysis of lithic tools from Leang Sarru and Goa Topogaro [32, 38, 39]. However, as Bird and others show [52], the early migration into Sahul required intentional seafaring. The bamboo raft hypothesis is so far the most supported model [53, 54] for human migration in Wallacea and Sahul regions. The trial by Thorne and Raymond to build a 15 2 m bamboo raft with a 2 m<sup>2</sup> square sail of matting on a 2 m short mast revealed that such a raft could travel at 4-5 knots per hour speed in a light breeze [54].

After the initial migration(s) to Sahul, the nautical skills of those early migrants could be further developed during 35-20 ka in Wallacea, Oceania and also in the Ryuku Islands in East Asia. For instance, the excavations at Leang Sarru have shown that AMH already reached the Talaud Islands by crossing a distance of over 100 km at least by around 35 ka in Wallacea. Although the exact route of this migration to the islands is not known, it appears likely that many islands in Wallacea were already colonized by AMH at the time that the remote Talaud Islands were settled. Correspondingly, voyages to the Bismarck Archipelago and Solomon Islands from Sahul occurred between 40 to 30 ka [55–58]. While the initial settlement of New Guinea, New Britain, and New Ireland required voyages of up to 100 km, the colonization of Buka in the Solomon Islands by 28 ka or earlier required a minimum sea voyage of 140 km and possibly 175 km [59].

In East Asia, most of the Ryuku Islands were settled by c. 30 ka, even though some islands such as Miyako and Ishigaki were located over 150-200 km distance from other islands or the Asian continent during the late Pleistocene. The current experimental archeological study of the Pleistocene voyages from Taiwan (connected to the Asian continent during the late Pleistocene) to Yonaguni Island, which is one of the Ryuku Islands and nearest to Taiwan and currently located about 110 km west of Taiwan, indicates possible use of paddling to cross the fast running Black current (>2 knot speed in average from south to north direction) to reach the Ryuku Islands from Taiwan or Asian continent [18, 60]. In that study, the trial using a bamboo-made raft-boat in 2018 failed to cross the current [60], while the dug-out canoe with 6 people as paddlers in 2019 succeeded to reach Yonaguni Island in about 48 hours of voyage [60]. Although the earliest dug-out canoe found in Japan is dated to 7500 years BP, Kaifu pointed out that many Pleistocene sites in Japan produced edge-grounded adze/axe that were dated back to between 40 and 30 ka which have been considered as canoe making tools, and such evidences suggest the possible use of dug-out canoes by modern humans during the late

#### *Island Migration, Resource Use, and Lithic Technology by Anatomically Modern… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93819*

Pleistocene [60]. Since similar types of adzes/axes were also excavated from the earliest dated site in Australia [14], the use of dug-out canoes for sea crossings of 80-100 km distance by the first AMH reaching Sahul can be another possibility.

In Oceania, Pamwak site on Manus Island was initially settled around 21 ka. It required at least 230 km of open sea voyaging to reach Manus and Admiralty Islands from the north coast of New Guinea or the north-western tip of the New Ireland [61], thus it must be assumed that the seafaring skills of modern humans were very much developed by the LGM. Migration or movement to Manus required an uninterrupted voyage of 200–230 km, 60–90 km of which would have been completely out of sight of any land [59]. Furthermore, the archeological evidences at Matenbek and Buang Merabak on New Ireland also show the intentional transfer of obsidian as tool material and cuscus as a food resource at around 20-16 ka. Obsidian was mainly acquired from the New Britain source of Mopir or Talasea, c. 55 km from Mopir [62]. Two quite different source distributions might imply different connections between New Ireland sites and New Britain sources, with implications for canoe travel [63]. It is yet unknown whether the transfer of obsidian was done directly by crossing over 300 km sea or by hopping along the coasts of New Britain to New Ireland. In the latter case, the maximum distance to cross sea could be about 30 km, the same as for the estimated cuscus transfer.

It has often been argued that initial colonization of the many islands of Wallacea must have been facilitated by a maritime adaptation, and that lowland coastal regions would therefore have been the logical target of early settlement [64]. Current archeological evidences show that the modern human seafaring skill did indeed develop from the earliest periods of migration until the LGM in maritime Asia including Wallacea and Ryuku Islands, as well as in Oceania during the late Pleistocene. In the next section, we discuss the possible development of both marine and terrestrial resource use by early modern humans in Wallacea.

### **4.2 Resource use and island adaptation by early modern humans in Wallacea**

Some early coastal sites in Wallacea, especially along the southern migration routes show the intensive use of marine resources by modern humans. The most famous case is Asitau Kuru on East Timor, which produced a large number of marine fish and shellfish species including the world oldest pelagic fish bones (e.g. Scombridae, including skipjack and yellowfin tuna species) dated to 42 ka cal. BP [3, 21]. The site also produced several fishhooks made of Trochus shell, and one of them was directly dated to c. 21-16 ka. Other sites in Timor and Alor Islands along the southern migration routes in Wallacea also provided numerous fish and shellfish remains for the late Pleistocene. For the late Pleistocene sites along the northern migration routes, on the other hand, all the sites reported here produced large number of shellfish remains, although the volume of excavated fish remains are rather limited or none. For example, Leang Sarru in Talaud and Topogaro Caves in Sulawesi have not provided any fish remains from the Pleistocene layers so far. Bubog 1 in Mindoro produced fish bones throughout its layers. Although its volume is far less than those from Asitau Kuru and other sites in Timor and Alor, a considerable variety of reef and pelagic fishes was recorded [43]. Also, no J-shaped fishhook is found yet from the prehistoric sites along the northern routes in Wallacea like the ones found in sites along the southern route [3]. Instead, Bubog 1 delivered a completely worked bone fishing gorge from deposits underneath the lowest shell midden layer which was dated to 33-28 ka cal. BP [9, 43].

The current absence of J-shaped fishhooks in Sulawesi and other islands along the northern routes might be just a matter of sampling the limited number of excavated sites but could also be caused by the availability of resources in each island. For

dating returned an age of 7.4-7.2 ka cal. BP, almost identical to the date of the shell adze from Bubog 1 [9, 42]. These dates complement the chrono-stratigraphic sequence of Bubog 1, where a hiatus between 11 and 27 ka was observed, suggesting a more or less continuous human presence in this area over the past

The current archeological evidences show that AMH who arrived in ISEA already possessed the ability for sea crossings over 80 km distance. They reached Wallacea and Sahul (Australia and New Guinea) by at least 50 to 45 ka, and by 40 to 30 ka had arrived at the Japanese and Ryuku Islands in maritime Asia. There is no material evidence for reconstructing the early seafaring technology including their vessels, although the authors found evidence for the processing of grassy plants potentially for the manufacture of cords, bindings and woven materials, such as baskets, nets and ropes from the traceological analysis of lithic tools from Leang Sarru and Goa Topogaro [32, 38, 39]. However, as Bird and others show [52], the early migration into Sahul required intentional seafaring. The bamboo raft hypothesis is so far the most supported model [53, 54] for human migration in Wallacea and Sahul regions. The trial by Thorne and Raymond to build a 15 2 m bamboo raft with a 2 m<sup>2</sup> square sail of matting on a 2 m short mast revealed that such a raft

After the initial migration(s) to Sahul, the nautical skills of those early migrants could be further developed during 35-20 ka in Wallacea, Oceania and also in the Ryuku Islands in East Asia. For instance, the excavations at Leang Sarru have shown that AMH already reached the Talaud Islands by crossing a distance of over 100 km at least by around 35 ka in Wallacea. Although the exact route of this migration to the islands is not known, it appears likely that many islands in Wallacea were already colonized by AMH at the time that the remote Talaud Islands were settled. Correspondingly, voyages to the Bismarck Archipelago and Solomon Islands from Sahul occurred between 40 to 30 ka [55–58]. While the initial settlement of New Guinea, New Britain, and New Ireland required voyages of up to 100 km, the colonization of Buka in the Solomon Islands by 28 ka or earlier required a minimum

In East Asia, most of the Ryuku Islands were settled by c. 30 ka, even though some islands such as Miyako and Ishigaki were located over 150-200 km distance from other islands or the Asian continent during the late Pleistocene. The current

(connected to the Asian continent during the late Pleistocene) to Yonaguni Island, which is one of the Ryuku Islands and nearest to Taiwan and currently located about 110 km west of Taiwan, indicates possible use of paddling to cross the fast running Black current (>2 knot speed in average from south to north direction) to reach the Ryuku Islands from Taiwan or Asian continent [18, 60]. In that study, the trial using a bamboo-made raft-boat in 2018 failed to cross the current [60], while the dug-out canoe with 6 people as paddlers in 2019 succeeded to reach Yonaguni Island in about 48 hours of voyage [60]. Although the earliest dug-out canoe found in Japan is dated to 7500 years BP, Kaifu pointed out that many Pleistocene sites in Japan produced edge-grounded adze/axe that were dated back to between 40 and 30 ka which have been considered as canoe making tools, and such evidences suggest the possible use of dug-out canoes by modern humans during the late

experimental archeological study of the Pleistocene voyages from Taiwan

could travel at 4-5 knots per hour speed in a light breeze [54].

sea voyage of 140 km and possibly 175 km [59].

**98**

35 ka [9, 51].

**4. Discussion**

**4.1 Island migration during the Pleistocene**

*Pleistocene Archaeology - Migration,Technology, and Adaptation*

example, there are no Pleistocene sites that have produced a large number of fish remains in Sulawesi, which is the largest Wallacean island with a high number and variety of terrestrial animals. The coasts with developed coral reefs are also limited along Sulawesi except for some remote islands, and the island coasts are mainly covered by mangrove forests. The larger volume of terrestrial animal bones and shellfish remains from the late Pleistocene sites in Sulawesi, including Topogaro caves, tentatively indicate this possibility. Leang Sarru in the remote Talaud Islands also produced only shellfish remains but no fish bones. The current island coast area with coral reefs is also limited in Talaud and could have been much less during the late Pleistocene, yet the exact reason(s) for absence of fish remains in Leang Sarru remains unclear. Also Golo Cave, located 60 m inland from the northwestern coast of Gebe Island in the Maluku Islands, produced shell tools and a variety (47 species) of marine shell remains [65], but a very limited number of fish bones as well.

In Leang Sarru, the amount and variety of marine shellfish remains significantly increased in Layer 2 dated to around the LGM. With the drop of sea level down to around 150 m, the distance to the coast from each site basically increased during the LGM. Even so, Leang Sarru was located within 2.5 km of the nearest coast during LGM [30]. Similarly, a heavy reliance on marine shell and other marine resources continued at Asitau Kuru which continued to be located within 5 km of the coast during the LGM [23]. The Bubog sites on Ilin Island were at any time during their occupation in close proximity to the coast. Even during the LGM the walking distance to the steep dropping southern coast of Ilin did not significantly increase and was not more than 1 km [33]. While the habitat for shellfish decreased with lower sea levels and the closing of the Ilin Channel, and completely disappeared once Ilin was connected to the Mindoro mainland (at sea levels of 60 m and lower), open sea fishing remained as a food resource, indicated by the dominance of

*Island Migration, Resource Use, and Lithic Technology by Anatomically Modern…*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93819*

pelagic fishes in the early Holocene and late Pleistocene layers [9, 33, 43].

on larger sized islands such as Sulawesi, despite its coastal location.

western Europe [74, 75].

**Asia**

**101**

What these sites seem to have in common is the presence of complex and specialized plant processing activities with dedicated stone tools. For instance, the association of notched tools with a variety of plant working has been identified within several late Pleistocene assemblages in ISEA like Tabon Cave [72], Leang Sarru and Topogaro [32, 38, 39]. The presence of tools with notched edges, both those caused by intentional retouching or by wear and tear, is a phenomenon also observed in other geographic regions and occurs in the prehistoric cultures in northern Africa and Europe, where they have been identified as being used for transversal activities (scraping, raking, splitting) of various plants, for example in the epipalaeolithic Capsian of the Maghreb region [73] and in the Mesolithic of

**4.3 Development of lithic technology and lithic tool use in Island Southeast**

The technology and the manufacture of stone tools in ISEA are characterized by the production and use of simple unretouched flakes and lack of secondary modifications to create distinctive formal tool types [11, 25, 32, 76, 77]. Lithic technological analyses are often anchored on the premise that formal and typologically classifiable tools are absent in the region, implying "stagnated" stone tool traditions [76, 78, 79]. Technology in this region is often labeled as informal and even expedient, without any preparations as opposed to curated tools [80], and not exhibiting any visible development. From the stone tool assemblages of the late Pleistocene, the lack of diagnostic features carried on even until the late Holocene and historical periods [81–86]. In general, results from a techno-typological approach may therefore not reflect the actual level of technological development in the region and thus other approaches are deemed necessary. Thereby the functions of stone tools might be a

Also at Laili Cave, which was located around 4.3 km from the Pleistocene Timor coast, the volume of shellfish remains increased considerably [2]. However, other sites such as Matja Kuru 2 on Timor, which was over 10 km away from the past coast during LGM, had a reduced volume of shellfish and other marine species [71]. Such evidences indicate that the distance from coast (<5 km) may affect intensive use of marine resources at each site particularly in small sized islands during LGM. On the other hand, the amount of shellfish remains in Topogaro caves during the late Pleistocene and terminal LGM times is very limited. The site is currently located about 3.5 km inland from the current coastline; thus, the distance from the coast during LGM could be estimated to be around 5-6 km. The Topogaro case indicates that early modern humans had a much stronger dependence on terrestrial resources

In general, most of the late Pleistocene coastal sites in Wallacea produced larger numbers of shellfish remains, thus shellfish could have been the major marine resource of early modern humans. The most important shell species exploited at these sites during the late Pleistocene were *Turbo* spp., *Nerita* spp.,*Trochus* spp., *Strombus* spp., *Geloina* spp., and Chiton. In terms of actual meat value,*Turbo* spp. might have been the most important, followed by *Trochus* spp., and *Strombus* spp. [28]. On the other hand, intensive use of fish was confirmed in some islands with limited worthwhile terrestrial animals such as Alor and Timor. There were no large and middlesized mammals on these islands during the late Pleistocene. Similarly, no large and middle-sized mammals occurred in the Talaud and Maluku sites during the late Pleistocene, and the current archeological evidences show only intensive use of shellfish in these islands. The exact factor(s) of such differences are not clear yet, and further archeological and past environmental data will be required in future study.

In terms of temporal change of resource use in Wallacea during the late Pleistocene, the Topogaro case indicates the possible intensive hunting of larger mammal species such as Anoa by around 29 ka. Given the rock paintings of Anoa hunting on the cave dated to 44 ka [4] and other archeological evidences of Anoa bones from the late Pleistocene sites in the Maros district, South Sulawesi also supports such a possibility [25]. Evidence for the active use of Anoa, Babirusa and Celebes warty pigs (*Sus celebensis*) was also found at Leang Burung 2 [25, 66, 67] in South Sulawesi. In Topogaro, *Sus* species increase in the middle layers possibly around 16 ka, together with the appearance of retouched lithic tools.

Sulawesi is the only Wallacean island with large to middle sized mammals like Anoa and pig, as all of the other islands are much smaller. Stegodon species once existed in Flores, Timor and Sangihe Islands as well as in Sulawesi but they all went extinct, possibly before the migration by modern humans into Wallacea. Currently there are no sites with Stegodon fossils from deposits associated with modern humans, even though the deeper deposits of Liang Bua in Flores produced numbers of Stegodon remains associated with lithic tools, very likely used by *Homo floresiensis* until around 60 ka [68–70]. The lowest deposit of Leang Burung 2 in South Sulawesi also produced some Stegodon remains possibly dating back to around 70 ka and clearly before the appearance of modern humans [25].

Some Stegodon fossils were found in Timor, but no such remains were excavated from Asitau Kuru and Laili Cave, dated to 44 and 42 ka respectively [2, 23]. Thus, the terrestrial animals hunted and used by early modern humans were mainly small-sized mammals like rodents and fruit bats, as well as reptiles including monitor lizard species and snakes. Laili Cave in Timor has produced 16 different mammal taxa, mainly rodents (four extinct small rat species and four extinct giant rat species) and bats (including a fruit bat species) together with some reptile, amphibian, bird, fish and shellfish remains [2].

#### *Island Migration, Resource Use, and Lithic Technology by Anatomically Modern… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93819*

In Leang Sarru, the amount and variety of marine shellfish remains significantly increased in Layer 2 dated to around the LGM. With the drop of sea level down to around 150 m, the distance to the coast from each site basically increased during the LGM. Even so, Leang Sarru was located within 2.5 km of the nearest coast during LGM [30]. Similarly, a heavy reliance on marine shell and other marine resources continued at Asitau Kuru which continued to be located within 5 km of the coast during the LGM [23]. The Bubog sites on Ilin Island were at any time during their occupation in close proximity to the coast. Even during the LGM the walking distance to the steep dropping southern coast of Ilin did not significantly increase and was not more than 1 km [33]. While the habitat for shellfish decreased with lower sea levels and the closing of the Ilin Channel, and completely disappeared once Ilin was connected to the Mindoro mainland (at sea levels of 60 m and lower), open sea fishing remained as a food resource, indicated by the dominance of pelagic fishes in the early Holocene and late Pleistocene layers [9, 33, 43].

Also at Laili Cave, which was located around 4.3 km from the Pleistocene Timor coast, the volume of shellfish remains increased considerably [2]. However, other sites such as Matja Kuru 2 on Timor, which was over 10 km away from the past coast during LGM, had a reduced volume of shellfish and other marine species [71]. Such evidences indicate that the distance from coast (<5 km) may affect intensive use of marine resources at each site particularly in small sized islands during LGM. On the other hand, the amount of shellfish remains in Topogaro caves during the late Pleistocene and terminal LGM times is very limited. The site is currently located about 3.5 km inland from the current coastline; thus, the distance from the coast during LGM could be estimated to be around 5-6 km. The Topogaro case indicates that early modern humans had a much stronger dependence on terrestrial resources on larger sized islands such as Sulawesi, despite its coastal location.

What these sites seem to have in common is the presence of complex and specialized plant processing activities with dedicated stone tools. For instance, the association of notched tools with a variety of plant working has been identified within several late Pleistocene assemblages in ISEA like Tabon Cave [72], Leang Sarru and Topogaro [32, 38, 39]. The presence of tools with notched edges, both those caused by intentional retouching or by wear and tear, is a phenomenon also observed in other geographic regions and occurs in the prehistoric cultures in northern Africa and Europe, where they have been identified as being used for transversal activities (scraping, raking, splitting) of various plants, for example in the epipalaeolithic Capsian of the Maghreb region [73] and in the Mesolithic of western Europe [74, 75].

## **4.3 Development of lithic technology and lithic tool use in Island Southeast Asia**

The technology and the manufacture of stone tools in ISEA are characterized by the production and use of simple unretouched flakes and lack of secondary modifications to create distinctive formal tool types [11, 25, 32, 76, 77]. Lithic technological analyses are often anchored on the premise that formal and typologically classifiable tools are absent in the region, implying "stagnated" stone tool traditions [76, 78, 79]. Technology in this region is often labeled as informal and even expedient, without any preparations as opposed to curated tools [80], and not exhibiting any visible development. From the stone tool assemblages of the late Pleistocene, the lack of diagnostic features carried on even until the late Holocene and historical periods [81–86]. In general, results from a techno-typological approach may therefore not reflect the actual level of technological development in the region and thus other approaches are deemed necessary. Thereby the functions of stone tools might be a

example, there are no Pleistocene sites that have produced a large number of fish remains in Sulawesi, which is the largest Wallacean island with a high number and variety of terrestrial animals. The coasts with developed coral reefs are also limited along Sulawesi except for some remote islands, and the island coasts are mainly covered by mangrove forests. The larger volume of terrestrial animal bones and shellfish remains from the late Pleistocene sites in Sulawesi, including Topogaro caves, tentatively indicate this possibility. Leang Sarru in the remote Talaud Islands also produced only shellfish remains but no fish bones. The current island coast area with coral reefs is also limited in Talaud and could have been much less during the late Pleistocene, yet the exact reason(s) for absence of fish remains in Leang Sarru remains unclear. Also Golo Cave, located 60 m inland from the northwestern coast of Gebe Island in the Maluku Islands, produced shell tools and a variety (47 species) of

*Pleistocene Archaeology - Migration,Technology, and Adaptation*

marine shell remains [65], but a very limited number of fish bones as well.

together with the appearance of retouched lithic tools.

clearly before the appearance of modern humans [25].

amphibian, bird, fish and shellfish remains [2].

**100**

numbers of shellfish remains, thus shellfish could have been the major marine resource of early modern humans. The most important shell species exploited at these sites during the late Pleistocene were *Turbo* spp., *Nerita* spp.,*Trochus* spp., *Strombus* spp., *Geloina* spp., and Chiton. In terms of actual meat value,*Turbo* spp. might have been the most important, followed by *Trochus* spp., and *Strombus* spp. [28]. On the other hand, intensive use of fish was confirmed in some islands with limited worthwhile terrestrial animals such as Alor and Timor. There were no large and middlesized mammals on these islands during the late Pleistocene. Similarly, no large and middle-sized mammals occurred in the Talaud and Maluku sites during the late Pleistocene, and the current archeological evidences show only intensive use of shellfish in these islands. The exact factor(s) of such differences are not clear yet, and further archeological and past environmental data will be required in future study. In terms of temporal change of resource use in Wallacea during the late Pleistocene, the Topogaro case indicates the possible intensive hunting of larger mammal species such as Anoa by around 29 ka. Given the rock paintings of Anoa hunting on the cave dated to 44 ka [4] and other archeological evidences of Anoa bones from the late Pleistocene sites in the Maros district, South Sulawesi also supports such a possibility [25]. Evidence for the active use of Anoa, Babirusa and Celebes warty pigs (*Sus celebensis*) was also found at Leang Burung 2 [25, 66, 67] in South Sulawesi. In Topogaro, *Sus* species increase in the middle layers possibly around 16 ka,

In general, most of the late Pleistocene coastal sites in Wallacea produced larger

Sulawesi is the only Wallacean island with large to middle sized mammals like Anoa and pig, as all of the other islands are much smaller. Stegodon species once existed in Flores, Timor and Sangihe Islands as well as in Sulawesi but they all went extinct, possibly before the migration by modern humans into Wallacea. Currently there are no sites with Stegodon fossils from deposits associated with modern humans, even though the deeper deposits of Liang Bua in Flores produced numbers of Stegodon remains associated with lithic tools, very likely used by *Homo floresiensis* until around 60 ka [68–70]. The lowest deposit of Leang Burung 2 in South Sulawesi also produced some Stegodon remains possibly dating back to around 70 ka and

Some Stegodon fossils were found in Timor, but no such remains were excavated from Asitau Kuru and Laili Cave, dated to 44 and 42 ka respectively [2, 23]. Thus, the terrestrial animals hunted and used by early modern humans were mainly small-sized mammals like rodents and fruit bats, as well as reptiles including monitor lizard species and snakes. Laili Cave in Timor has produced 16 different mammal taxa, mainly rodents (four extinct small rat species and four extinct giant rat species) and bats (including a fruit bat species) together with some reptile,

better indicator of the level of technological capacity of prehistoric populations in ISEA. The results of a combined geometrics morphometrics study from Early Holocene lithics of Song Terus, Java indicate that form was not the major parameter in the selection of tools for use but rather their suitability for particular tasks [87].

and encompassing experimental database is still lacking for ISEA, especially for its lithic tools during the late Pleistocene. Use-wear analysis could address this through comparison with studies from other regions that also deal with similar problems

The progress of maritime adaptation was far more developed than previously expected, when AMH or *Homo sapiens* reached various marine and coastal environments after migrating Out of Africa, particularly in ISEA including Wallacea and Oceania after 45-50 ka. Early traces of long-distance seafaring and intense maritime activities, including pelagic fishing, and the use of shell fishhooks and/or bone fishing gorges for bait fishing, as well as the increased processing of grassy plants for the extraction of fibrous materials for products that may also have been a part of the maritime technology of early modern humans, have been discovered in these maritime regions since the late Pleistocene. Such finds strongly indicate that the archipelagic environment of AMH, with many small and remote islands, could be the major background for their high maritime adaptation and mobility. After the Holocene, and with warmer temperatures, rapid rise of sea level, and the expansion

of coastal areas including a possible development of coral reefs after around 6000 years ago, there were both, maritime adaptation and adaptation to new Holocene island environments, accompanied by the development of lithic production and functional tools for hunting and using plant and other materials by AMH in

This research is part of the Cultural History of PaleoAsia - Integrative research

on the formative processes of modern human cultures in Asia project and is supported by a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Research Grant (Grant Number: 16H06409). Alfred Pawlik was supported by the University Research Council of Ateneo de Manila University and an AdMU Loyola Schools Research and Creative Writing (RCW) Faculty Grant. The research of Riczar Fuentes was funded by a Lisa Maskell Fellowship of the Gerda Henkel Foundation, Düsseldorf, Germany. The excavations of Leang Sarru and Goa Topogaro reported here would not

be possible without the support and the administrative personnel of Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional (ARKENAS) and Balai Arkeologi Sulawesi Utara in

associated with "simple" lithic technology during the late Pleistocene.

*Island Migration, Resource Use, and Lithic Technology by Anatomically Modern…*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93819*

**5. Conclusion**

Wallacea.

Indonesia.

**103**

**Acknowledgements**

To overcome the lack of formal tool types as an indicator of technological development, the "typology dilemma" of Southeast Asia's Paleolithic [85], several use-wear studies have recently provided more substantial insights into the functionality and technological capacity of informal flake tools. This analytical method, also known as traceology or the microscopic identification of traces of wear and tear [88] has the potential to fill the gaps on our understanding of lithic technology in the region. Use-wear analysis can provide actual information on the intended use and purpose of lithic tools, independent of their form and level of manufacture. While the absence of formal and standardized stone tools was previously often regarded as a result of the presence of a plant-based tool kit, sometimes referred to as a "bamboo industry" [81, 89], no material evidence of such "vegetal tools" has yet been found in the archeological record. On the other hand, the presence of a variety of useful plants and the identification of wear traces caused by plant working has led to extensive experimental research dedicated to the exploration of the various functions and uses of plants in prehistoric Southeast Asia [90, 91]. While direct evidence for an actual existence of bamboo tools is still lacking in the archeological record, experimental use-wear analysis has significantly contributed to our understanding of the importance and versatility of tropical plants throughout human history. Numerous artifacts have been found that carry traces of plant processing in form of intensive micropolishes, the so-called "sickle gloss," for instance in late Pleistocene sites in Central and North Sulawesi [32, 38, 39].

Although stone tool assemblages in ISEA are generally characterized by the production and use of unretouched flake tools, it does not necessarily mean that the prehistoric technology in the region was less complex. In several sites in ISEA, the existence of composite technologies have been identified that employed unretouched flakes by attaching them as insets to shafts with the aid of resinous adhesives, for hunting weapons and also for tools with handles such as knives [32, 86, 92]. This is another example when a microscopic approach is particularly suitable for addressing current issues in understanding the prehistoric lithic technology of ISEA [32, 38, 86, 93]. It has also rendered the stereotypical label of lithic technologies in Southeast Asia being backward obsolete.

Lithic technology during the course of human occupation in Wallacea indicates a reliance on secondary raw material sources, for instance nodules from rivers or streams [25, 32, 38, 77, 82]. Examples are the use of igneous beach pebbles as hammerstones and net sinkers, and their sharp-edged fragments as tools for cutting and scraping activities [9, 32]. Other examples are the use of marine shells that possess physical characteristics similar to rocks for non-formal and formal tools that were employed for a variety of activities [9, 42, 94–97]. While microscopic traces indicate intensive plant processing that was most likely associated with the production of other forms of technology and consumption during the late Pleistocene, this might also be a reflection of adaptation to environmental changes. The technological advancements in ISEA are often associated with the need for sea crossings and the processing and production of tools made from organic materials such as shells, animal bones and plants. Several aspects in the development and application of prehistoric technologies in island environments still need to be further explored, especially the role of plant working in the production of rafts, nets, traps, and binding materials. More experimental research on the identification and differentiation of traces from different types of materials, such as plants and animal bones, needs to be conducted. In terms of understanding prehistoric technology, a robust

and encompassing experimental database is still lacking for ISEA, especially for its lithic tools during the late Pleistocene. Use-wear analysis could address this through comparison with studies from other regions that also deal with similar problems associated with "simple" lithic technology during the late Pleistocene.
