Tam Pa Ling: early Homo sapiens of mainland Southeast Asia
Tam Pa Ling: Homo sapiens antiguo del sudeste continental
- Date
- c. 86-46 ka · confidence low
- Place
- Tam Pa Ling Cave, Houaphan, Laos
- Credited to
- Fabrice Demeter, Laura Shackelford and colleagues
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
A skull and jaw of Homo sapiens found in Tam Pa Ling cave in the Annamite mountains, with an estimated age of about 46,000-63,000 years and later revised to around 70,000 years or more. They are among the oldest modern human remains in mainland Southeast Asia.
The skull (2009) was published in PNAS in 2012 at 46,000 years; the jaw and the new dates were published later (2015 and 2022), with older ages (up to about 86,000-68,000 years), still without consensus. The coordinates are approximate.
What it led to
- data on the dispersal of Homo sapiens out of Africa into East Asia
- debate over the coastal or inland route of early humans
- revision of the peopling of mainland Asia