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Earliest Evidence in the Philippines of Life Under the Canopy: Plant Technology and Use of Forest Resources by Our Species

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Abstract

In the past decades, two antinomic hypotheses were developed in tropical prehistory. Scholars qualified tropical forests as “green deserts” and considered them inhospitable before the emergence of agriculture. Other archaeologists working in Southeast Asia rather thought that humans adapted so much to tropical forests that it impacted their technology. Neglecting mineral resources, they would have made diverse and complex tools in perishable plant material: bamboo. Here, we report findings from Tabon Cave, including palaeo-environmental, lithic technological, and use-wear data from 39,000 to 33,000 years ago. Our data document that the site was surrounded by rainforest at the time of human occupation, including 39,000 to 33,000 years ago, adding to the body of knowledge showing that our species was indeed capable of living in tropical forests long before relying on agriculture. During this period, prehistoric groups made stone tools out of radiolarian chert using Kombewa, SSDA (système par surface de débitage alterné), and discoid methods. Fifteen percent of the blanks were retouched, and some of the knapping products are blades, produced by volumetric exploitation of the blocks. Both are unusual in the region. Functional analyses of lithic artefacts show evidence for an organic plant-based technology, but not limited to the manufacturing of bamboo tools and weapons: various plants were exploited, including but not limited to palm trees; plants were split and turned into different objects, including baskets and ties or fasteners. We propose that plants played an important role in the economy and technology of Southeast Asian prehistoric groups, going much further than making bamboo tools.

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Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to the National Museum of the Philippines for allowing us to work on such an important site for our understanding of Human Evolution as Tabon, as well as to numerous individuals who helped us throughout the different stages of this research: Bassam Ghaleb, Christophe Falguères, Sylvie Beyries, Graeme Barker, Monica Tromp, John Rey Callado, Dalino Tandang, Alison Crowther, Arnaud Mazuy, Simon Puaud, Dries Cnuts, and Robert Morgan. We also thank warmly the anonymous reviewers who helped us so constructively to improve our manuscript.

Funding

The different stages of this research were funded by the European Union under the PrehSEA program (Grant Agreement DCI/HUM/2011/271-990), the Erasmus Mundus EEMC—Joint Master Course, and a Marie Curie fellowship (Grant Agreement No. 843521), the Fyssen Foundation, the Institute for Southeast Asian Archaeology, the MacDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, and the Deutsch Forschungsgemeinschauft (DFG).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Archaeology, University of the Philippines Diliman, Albert Hall, Lakandula Street, UP Campus, Quezon City, Philippines

    Hermine Xhauflair & Eusebio Dizon

  2. Equipe PreTrop, UMR 7194, MNHN-CNRS-UPVD, Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, 1 rue René Panhard, 75013, Paris, France

    Hermine Xhauflair, Omar Choa, Anne-Marie Sémah, Xavier Gallet & François Sémah

  3. Archaeology Division, National Museum of the Philippines, Padre Burgos Street, Manila, Philippines

    Hermine Xhauflair & Sheldon Clyde Jago-on

  4. Università di Ferrara, Sezione di Scienze preistoriche e antropologiche, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Corso Ercole I d’Este 32, 44121, Ferrara, Italy

    Marta Arzarello

  5. University of Tübingen, Abteilung für Ältere Urgeschichte und Quartärökologie, Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Archäologie des Mittelalters, Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen, Schloss Hohentübingen, Burgsteige 11, D-72070, Tübingen, Germany

    Patrick Schmidt

  6. Departament d’Humanitats. Història / Culture and Socio-Ecological Dynamics (CaSEs), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Carrer de la Mercè, 12, 08002, Barcelona, Spain

    Céline Kerfant

  7. IPHES, Edificio W3, Campus Sescelades URV, Zona Educacional, 4, 43007, Tarragona, Spain

    Céline Kerfant

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  1. Hermine Xhauflair
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Correspondence to Hermine Xhauflair.

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ESM 1

SM1: Pollen sampling. SM2: Use-wear and retouch attributes recorded on stone tools. SM3 - Synthesis of use-wear and residue analysis observations. (DOCX 1501 kb)

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Xhauflair, H., Jago-on, S.C., Arzarello, M. et al. Earliest Evidence in the Philippines of Life Under the Canopy: Plant Technology and Use of Forest Resources by Our Species. J Paleo Arch 7, 22 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41982-024-00186-y

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