Page 39 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

A map of the migration paths
of Early Modern Humans
(Out of Africa) according to
Howells (1995).
Ksar Akil
Boker
Tachtit
Patne

Bab-el-Mandeb Jwalapuram
Strait Malay
Peninsula
Norikiushin Batadomba-lena Niah Cave
Enkapune ya Muto
Mumba Andaman Islands

Diepkloof
Klasies River Lake Mungo
Blombos

Asian or Central South Asian population with the depreciation of haplotype diversity from
south to north. Furthermore, there was also a 50% East Asian haplotype found in Southeast
Asia and just 5% in the Central South Asia. This data supports the view that Southeast Asia
was the main geographical source of the East Asian population.
Despite the controversy on the migration date above, based on the regional archeology
data, early modern humans were thought to have entered Indonesia around 60,000 years
ago (Simanjuntak, 2006, 2011). Their lives up to the end of Pleistocene were shaped by the
fluctuating climate which drove the increase and decrease of sea level. Research done in
the Huon Peninsula, PNG, showed that around 70,000-60,000 years ago a decrease in sea
level occurred (Chappell and Shackleton, 1986). After that, the sea level kept increasing and
decreasing up to the end of the Pleistocene. The lowest point reached happened around
18,000 years ago, at around 120 meters below present day sea levels. Since then, sea
levels have increased steadily to reach the present level. The period of sea level decrease
of around 70,000-60,000 years ago seemed to be the momentum for EMH’s entering
Indonesia. The decrease of sea level at that time (of around 80 m from the present sea level)
did not create a land bridge connecting the Asian mainland and Indonesia (Hantoro, 1997).
Any migration that might have occurred would have had to involve some sea crossing, and
therefore, capability in seafaring technology would have been essential for the dispersion.

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