Een nieuw model voor de evolutie van Homo sapiens van de Wallacea eilanden

Flores is an island located in Wallacea between the Sunda and Sahul shelves. It has always been surrounded by water, even during periods of low sea level. Twelve prehistoric individuals (including these two skulls and their postcranial remains) from five caves and one open site have been discovered on Flores by Father Verhoeven in the 1950 s. Two of these individuals have left almost entirely intact skulls. These skulls hold valuable information about the evolution of modern man in Southeast Asia. Paul Storm (1995) investigated the pattern of evolution of modern man in Southeast Asia. He discovered that the populations of this area could be subdivided in two types, the Sunda-type (China, Java) and the Sahul-type (Australia, New Guinea), on the basis of skull morphology. In his investigation he included the above mentioned two skulls from Flores. The two skulls from Flores did not clearly resemble either the Sunda or Sahul skull type. Since Storm placed the emphasis on the Wajak skulls from Java, he did not pursue the problem of the Flores skulls further. In the present study (Plas, 2002), the role of these two skulls in the evolution of modern man in Southeast Asia is investigated. For this purpose the twelve individuals from five caves and one open site have been described. Comparison with prehistoric and recent remains from the surrounding areas have led to a new model for the evolution of Homo sapiens from the Wallacean islands. This model assumes a separate line of evolution for the populations of Wallacea.