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Tracing the Cradle of Civilizations in Sundaland

Conference Paper · April 2017

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Tracing the Cradle of Civilizations in
Sundaland
By Dhani Irwanto

Sundaland is a bio-geographical region of Southeastern Asia which encompasses

the Sunda shelf, the part of the Asian continental shelf that was exposed during
the last ice age. The Last Glacial period, popularly known as the Ice Age, was
the most recent glacial period within the current ice age occurring during the last
years of the Pleistocene, from approximately 110,000 to 11,600 years ago. It
included the Malay Peninsula on the Asian mainland, as well as the large islands
of Kalimantan, Java, and Sumatera and their surrounding islands. The eastern
boundary of Sundaland is the Wallace Line*, identified by Alfred Russel Wallace
as the eastern boundary of the range of Asia’s land mammal fauna, and thus the
boundary of the Indomalaya
Mainland Asia

Luzon
and Australasia ecozones. The
South China Sea islands east of the Wallace line
are known as Wallacea, and are
Mindanao
considered part of Australasia.
It is worth noting that it is now
generally accepted that South
Kalimantan
East Asia was probably the
Sulawesi
entry point of modern humans
from Africa.

The name “Sundaland” was

Bali Lombok first proposed by van
Bemmelen in 1949, followed by
Katili (1975), Hamilton (1979)
Figure 1 – Sundaland at the Last Glacial Maximum and Hutchison (1989), to
period.
describe the continental core of

* The Wallace Line is a faunal boundary line drawn in 1859 by the British naturalist
Alfred Russel Wallace that separates the ecozones of Asia and Wallacea, a transitional
zone between Asia and Australia. West of the line are found organisms related to Asiatic
species; to the east, a mixture of species of Asian and Australian origin is present.
Wallace noticed this clear division during his travels through the East Indies in the 19th
century. The line runs through Indonesia, between Kalimantan and Sulawesi, and
through the Lombok Strait between Bali and Lombok.
1
Southeast Asia forming the southern part of the Eurasian plate. Sundaland is
bordered to the west, south and east by tectonically active region characterized
by intense seismicity and volcanic activity. The tectonically active zone is
effectively a mountain belt in the process of formation, and contain many of the
features typically thought to be associated with accretionary orogens: there is
active subduction, transfer of material at plate boundaries, examples of collision
with buoyant feature on oceanic plates, arcs and continents, and abundant
magmatism.

The present mountain belt is situated at the junction of three major plates: the
Eurasian, Indian, Australian and Pacific-Philippine Sea plates. It surrounds
Sundaland and stretches from Sumatera to The Philippines via eastern
Indonesia. It changes character and width from west to east and is composed of
different segments or sutures with different character.

During the Last Glacial period, there were several changes between glacier
advance and retreat. The maximum extent of glaciation within this period was
approximately 21,000 years ago. Scientists consider this Ice Age to be merely the
latest glaciation event in a much larger ice age, one that dates back over two
million years and has seen multiple glaciations. While the general pattern of
global cooling and glacier advance was similar, local differences in the
development of glacier advance and retreat makes it difficult to compare the
details from continent to continent.

-25
Holocene
Younger The Younger Dryas
Older Oldest
Dryas Dryas Dryas
stadial – named after an
Allerød
Bølling
Allerød

Last Glacial Maximum

Mean annual temperature ( C)

-30

-35
indicator genus, the
alpine-tundra wildflower
-40
Dryas octopetala – is also
-45
referred to as the Big
-50 Freeze, was a
-55 geologically brief (1,300
8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22

© 2015, Dhani Irwanto Age (thousands of years) ± 70 years) period of

cold climatic conditions
Figure 2 – Last Glacial temperature measured from the
Greenland ice layers. and drought which
occurred between
approximately 12,800 and 11,600 years ago. It followed the Bølling-Allerød
interstadial (warm period) at the end of the Pleistocene and preceded the
preboreal of the early Holocene.

2
The vast majority of scholars accept that every living human being is descended
from a small group in Africa, who then dispersed into the wider world.
Archaeological and fossil evidence support an early migration of modern
humans left Africa and followed the coastlines of Africa, Arabia, India and
Sundaland.

Europe

Asia

Indian
Qasfeh
Sub-
Jebel Faya continent Malay
Peninsula
Patne
Callao Cave
Jwalapuram Kalimantan
Herto Lang Rongrien
Africa
Batadomba-lena Kota Tampan
Sulawesi
Mt Toba Niah Cave
Sri Lanka Sundaland
Enkapune Ya Muto Maros Caves
Sumatera
Mumba Rockshelter Punung Cave

Java

Sahul

Blombos Cave Devil’s Lair Lake Mungo

© 2017, Dhani Irwanto

Figure 3 – Southern Dispersal Route with archaeological and fossil evidence.

Ideal climatic conditions and natural resources for development were found in
Sundaland. After migrating from the semi-deserted savannas of Africa, man first
found a place where food was abundant and it was there that they invented
farming, agriculture, trading and civilization, which made humanity first
flourished. All this took place during the Last Glacial period, where the sea level
was as low as 120 meters (400 feet) below the present value that caused a vast
land of Sundaland to expose.

Sundaland was the biggest area to be drowned after the Last Glacial period as
the glaciers started to retreat around 19,000 years ago. Sea levels continued to
rise gradually to peak levels about 5,500 years ago. Cracks in the earth’s crust as
the weight of the ice shifted to the seas set off catastrophic events on tropical
coasts with flat continental shelves. Rapid land loss was compounded by super
waves, and floods drowned the coastal cultures and all the flat continental
shelves of Southeast Asia, and wiped out many populations. As the sea rolled in,
there was a mass migration from the sinking continent.

3
The Younger Dryas period (approximately 12,800 – 11,600 years ago) is one of
the most well-known examples of such abrupt change. The prevailing theory of
the cause is by significant reduction or shutdown of the North Atlantic
“Conveyor”, which circulates warm tropical waters northward, in response to a
sudden influx of fresh water from Lake Agassiz and deglaciation in North
America. Concurring events occurring around this period have been observed,
showing that the epoch had inflicted great impact on the planet.

The ending time of the Younger Dryas period corresponds to the beginning of
the Holocene period which extends to the present time. The Holocene
encompasses the growth and impacts of the human species worldwide,
including all its written history, development of major civilizations, and overall
significant transition toward urban living in the present. In archaeology, the end
of Younger Dryas is also the end of Paleolithic and the beginning of Neolithic
ages.

There has been a sharp decline in the population of the world beginning in the
early Holocene, or the end of the Younger Dryas, causing a bottle neck of
human population at about mid-Holocene (Karmin et al 2015). There were
population turnovers from Southeast, East and South Asia to Europe, Near
East and the Caucasus, suggesting that the end of the Younger Dryas period
caused the refugium of those populations to migrate and establish new
civilizations. Establishment of new civilizations around the world with building,
farming, tool and weapon technology occurred at nearly coincide with the
Younger Dryas period that have been detected through investigations of
archaeological sites.

The Younger Dryas disasters are also documented as legends, myths or tales in
almost every region on Earth, observable with tremendous similarities. They are
common across a wide range of cultures, extending back into Bronze Age and
Neolithic prehistory. The overwhelming consistency among legends and myths
of flood and the repopulation of man from a flood hero similar to the Noah
Flood are found in distant parts of the Earth. The myths similar to the Garden
of Eden, Paradise or Divine Land echo among the populations around the
world. Memories of their origin are documented in their legends, such as the
stories of Atlantis, Neserser, Land of Punt, Land of Ophir, Kumari Kandam,
Kangdez and Taprobana. Those indicate that they were derived from a common
origin.

4
With a bulk of collected archaeological and genetic studies as well as legends,
myths and tales, the author makes an attempt to reassemble the possible
connections of the evidence to obtain the pattern of the population dispersal
using a “Potsherd Model”. In the model, various evidence (“sherds”) are
reassembled to form the pattern of the population dispersal (“pot”). Missing
sherds causes holes on the pot are filled in with hypotheses, in which each hole
is connected to the surrounding sherds. The result is as illustrated on Figure 4
and described as below.

The dispersal to East and North Asia is reassembled using genetic studies,
among others by Sagart (1990, 2005), Oppenheimer (1998, 2011), Yao et al
(2002), Sanchez-Mazas et al (2005), Palmer (2007), Richards et al (2008, 2011).
HUGO Pan-Asian SNP Consortium (2009), Wang et al (2013), Karafet et al
(2014), Li et al (2015), Brandão et al (2016), Soares et al (2016), Genographic
Project (2016) and Marrero et al (2016). Rice farmed in China, the beginning of
the Japanese Jomon Period and a Neolithic community at Yellow River site of
Nanzhuangtou also show their appearance around the Younger Dryas period.

The dispersal to South Asia is reassembled using genetic studies, among others
by Oppenheimer (1998, 2011), HUGO Pan-Asian SNP Consortium (2009),
Genographic Project (2016) and Marrero et al (2016). Agriculture appears to
have been in the Indus valley around the Younger Dryas period. Vedic myth
about the flood hero Manu and Tamil legend of Kumari Kandam and Pandya
are also apparently their memories about the flood happened around the period
and the sea level rise thereafter.

The dispersal to Mesopotamia, Persia, Middle East and Near East is

reassembled using the myths and legends, among others the stories of
Gilgamesh, Noah, Garden of Eden, Ziusudra and Atrahasis contained in the
Eridu Genesis, Epic of Atrahasis, Epic of Gilgamesh, Book of Kolbrin, Babyloniaca, Book
of Genesis, Book of Ezekiel, Quran, Metamorphoses, Fabulae and Bibliotheca, and the
story of Kangdez. These are apparently their memories about the Paradise and
the floods happened around the Younger Dryas period. Oppenheimer (1998)
suggested that the dispersal became the root for the innovative cultures that
developed in Mesopotamia. Archaeological evidence of Gobekli Tepe, Jericho
settlement, Catalhoyuk settlement, clay tokens in Mesopotamia, Middleeastern
Neolithic B culture, large scale organized agriculture in the Levant region and
communities based on agriculture at Teleilat el Ghassul, Hussuna, Samarran and
Halaf also show their appearance around the Younger Dryas period.

5
 Sahtú

Lithuanian
EUROPE
Amesbury Caucasus
Tell Halaf NORTH
Celt Gobekli Tepe Tell Hassuna
Catalhoyuk Levant
AMERICA
Oregon
Roman Cyprus Samarra Nanzhuangtou
Hispanian ASIA
Athenian Akkadian Hamilton
Phoenician Iranian Folsom
Hebrew Clovis
Sumerian Nagaland Chingpaw Kyushu Garden of Eden ATLANTIC
Sais
Egyptian Jericho Mesopotamia Paradise
Yangtze Valley Dilmun OCEAN
Deir El-Bahari Indus Valley Diaotonghuan
Teleilat el Ghassul Nisir
Hawaiian
Moslems Neserser Aztec Hoya Negro
Middleeastern Vedas Atlantis
Neolitihic B Land of Punt Mayan
Land of Ophir
Tamil
Kumari Kandam PACIFIC OCEAN
AFRICA Pandya
Batak

6
Kangdez
Dayak Taprobana
? Golden Khersonese SOUTH Suruí (Pará)
Gunungpadang Sundaland AMERICA
Flores
Karitiana (Rondônia)
INDIAN
Xavante (Mato Grosso)
OCEAN
AUSTRALIA Taltal

Monte Verde

Archaeological sites probably related to population dispersal around the Younger Dryas period

Legends, myths or tales almost similarly documenting memories of their origins

© 2017, Dhani Irwanto Approximate population dispersal around the Younger Dryas period according to genetic studies connected with archaeological evidence, legends, myths and tales

Figure 4 – Population dispersal around the Younger Dryas period reassembled from archaeological,
legend, myth and tale evidence and genetic studies.
 The dispersal to the regions around the North Africa and Europe is reassembled
using the myths and legends, among others the stories of Atlantis, Neserser,
Land of Punt, Land of Ophir and Taprobana; and the legend of the Lithuanians.
Genetic studies such as by Oppenheimer (1998), Hammer (2013), Karafet et al
(2014), Posth et al (2016) and Marrero et al (2016) are also used. Archaeological
evidence of a Neolithic village in Cyprus and Amesbury town in Wiltshire also
show their appearance around the Younger Dryas period.

The dispersal to the Pacific is reassembled using genetic studies among others
by Kayser et al (2000), Richards et al (2008), Peng et al (2010), Jinam et al (2012),
Karafet et al (2014), Brandão et al (2016), Soares et al (2016), Genographic
Project (2016) and Marrero et al (2016); and the legend of the Hawaiians.

The dispersal to America is reassembled using the myths and legends, among
others in the Mayan, Aztec and Sahtú peoples. Genetic studies such as by Reich
et al (2015), Willerslev et al (2015) and Marrero et al (2016) are also taken into
consideration. Archaeological evidence of domestication of maize in Mexico,
Folsom people, Clovis people, pottery, tools, arrowheads and other objects used
by native Americans inhabiting southwestern Hamilton County in Ohio, a poop
found in Oregon, a skeleton found in Hoya Negro cave in Mexico, an ancient
mine near the town of Taltal in northern Chile and a site at Monte Verde in
southern Chile also show their appearance around the Younger Dryas period.

The dispersal to the highlands of Southeast Asia is reassembled using the

genetic studies by most of the above researchers. Legends and myths among the
people of Dayak, Batak, Chingpaw and Nagaland are also taken into
consideration. The megalithic site of Gunungpadang appeared as a pyramid
form at around the Younger Dryas period (Natawidjaja 2013). Homo floresiensis
found in the island of Flores survived until around the period as well before
dying out.

With the above piling of evidence, the author concludes to suggest that
Sundaland is a strong candidate to trace it as the cradle of civilizations, began
from about 50,000 – 70,000 years ago until the massive dispersal around the
Younger Dryas period.

***

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