Table_1_Diet of the earliest modern humans in East Asia.DOCX

Reconstructing diet can offer an improved understanding toward the origin and evolution of modern humans. However, the diet of early modern humans in East Asia is poorly understood. Starch analysis of dental calculus is harmless to precious fossil hominins and provides the most direct evidence of plant food sources in early modern human dietary records. In this paper, we examined the starch grains in dental calculus from Fuyan Cave hominins in Daoxian (South China), which were the earliest modern humans in East Asia. Our results reveal the earliest direct evidence of a hominin diet made of acorns, roots, tubers, grass seeds, and other yet-unidentified plants in marine isotope stage 5 between 120 and 80 ka. Our study also provides the earliest evidence that acorns may have played an important role in subsistence strategies. There may have been a long-lasting tradition of using these plants during the Late Pleistocene in China. Plant foods would have been a plentiful source of carbohydrates that greatly increased energy availability to human tissues with high glucose demands. Our study provides the earliest direct consumption of carbohydrates-rich plant resources from modern humans in China for the first time. In addition, it also helps elucidate the evolutionary advantages of early modern humans in the late Middle and early Upper Pleistocene.</p

Cranio-morphometric and aDNA corroboration of the Austronesian dispersal model in ancient Island Southeast Asia: Support from Gua Harimau, Indonesia

<div><p>The Austronesian language is spread from Madagascar in the west, Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) in the east (e.g. the Philippines and Indonesian archipelagoes) and throughout the Pacific, as far east as Easter Island. While it seems clear that the remote ancestors of Austronesian speakers originated in Southern China, and migrated to Taiwan with the development of rice farming by c. 5500 BP and onto the northern Philippines by c. 4000 BP (the Austronesian Dispersal Hypothesis or ADH), we know very little about the origins and emergence of Austronesian speakers in the Indonesian Archipelago. Using a combination of cranial morphometric and ancient mtDNA analyses on a new dataset from Gua Hairmau, that spans the pre-Neolithic through to Metal Period (5712—5591cal BP to 1864—1719 cal BP), we rigorously test the validity of the ADH in ISEA. A morphometric analysis of 23 adult male crania, using 16 of Martin’s standard measurements, was carried out with results compared to an East and Southeast Asian dataset of 30 sample populations spanning the Late Pleistocene through to Metal Period, in addition to 39 modern samples from East and Southeast Asia, near Oceania and Australia. Further, 20 samples were analyzed for ancient mtDNA and assigned to identified haplogroups. We demonstrate that the archaeological human remains from Gua Harimau cave, Sumatra, Indonesia provide clear evidence for at least two (cranio-morphometrically defined) and perhaps even three (in the context of the ancient mtDNA results) distinct populations from two separate time periods. The results of these analyses provide substantive support for the ADH model in explaining the origins and population history of ISEA peoples.</p></div

Representative pre-Neolithic (Left, individual No. 79) and Metal period (Right, individual No. 48) crania from Gua Harimau.

<p>Representative pre-Neolithic (Left, individual No. 79) and Metal period (Right, individual No. 48) crania from Gua Harimau.</p

A neighbour net splits tree generated from a Q-mode correlation coefficients matrix, based on the craniometric data, comparing the archaeological and modern sample populations.

<p>The Late (pre-Neolithic) and Early Gua Harimau samples are boxed for ease of identification.</p

Results of the NGS analysis.

<p>Results of the NGS analysis.</p

Sample used for DNA extraction and the result of the DNA analysis from the Gua Harimau site.

<p>Sample used for DNA extraction and the result of the DNA analysis from the Gua Harimau site.</p

Location of Gua Harimau (star) in Southeast Sumatra, Indonesia.

<p>Location of Gua Harimau (star) in Southeast Sumatra, Indonesia.</p

Views from Gua Harimau.

<p>Left: Metal Period (Bronze-Iron Age) extended burials (note, co-authors, from left to right: Nguyen Lan Cuong, Daya Prastingus; Hirofumi Matsumura, and Sofwan Neruwdi); Right Upper: Metal Period Burial No. 23 and 24; Right Lower: pre-Neolithic Period Burial No. 79.</p

Results of AMS dating for human remains from the site of Gua Harimau.

<p>Results of AMS dating for human remains from the site of Gua Harimau.</p

OSL single-grain dating of sediments from Tam Pa Ling: dose rate data, equivalent doses and ages.

<p>^a Determined from beta counter measurements of dried and powdered sediment samples.</p><p>^b Determined from U, Th and K concentrations measured using a portable gamma-ray spectrometer at field water content</p><p>^c Time-averaged cosmic-ray dose rates (for dry samples), each assigned an uncertainty of ± 10%.</p><p>^d Field / time-averaged water contents, expressed as (mass of water/mass of dry sample) x 100. The latter values were used to calculate the total dose rates and OSL ages</p><p>^e Mean ± total (1σ) uncertainty, calculated as the quadratic sum of the random and systematic uncertainties. An internal dose rate of 0.03 Gy ka-1 is also included</p><p>^f Statistical model used to determine the dose distribution between grains-MAM—Minimum Age Model</p><p>^g Palaeodoses include a ± 2% systematic uncertainty associated with laboratory beta-source calibrations</p><p>^h OSL signal measured using single-grains of quartz—between 800–1800 grains were run for each sample with between 6–20% of the grains emitting an acceptable luminescence signal, with the De derived from a MAM.</p><p>ⁱ Uncertainties at 68% confidence interval</p><p>OSL single-grain dating of sediments from Tam Pa Ling: dose rate data, equivalent doses and ages.</p