Variability of the Late Pleistocene-Holocene Homo Sapiens groups in Western Indonesian archipelago: focus on second molars

Abstract

The present study aims at characterizing the variability of the Late Pleistocene to Holocene western Indonesian archipelago ancient populations based on second molars , which are described by means of comparative morphology (ASUDAS), and metrics (BL and MD measurements). We furthermore test similarity and differentiation by metric and non-metric statistics analysis to observe group clustering among the samples. Results show two different dental types. The “Preneolithic” one is present on Early to Middle Holocene fossils, between 12 to 4.5 ka, and the “Neolithic-Paleometallic” type consists of Late Holocene remains, from 3.2 ka. This study opens new perspectives regarding the scenario of human occupation in the western Indonesian archipelago during those periods, and questions as well the chronological significance of some features classically described as ‘archaic’ or ‘derived’ in dental palaeoanthropology.