The Canadian Association for Physical Anthropology is having their annual meeting next week, and they have a special symposium on their first day on the bioarchaeology of Liang Bua. The symposium will be held on Zoom, and the session will be on Nov. 4, 9 am -12 noon (Toronto time, which means Nov. 3, 8 pm Jakarta time) – for more information on how to join click here. Thanks to Hanneke Meijer for the link!
LiangBua is best known as the type site of Homo floresiensis, an extinct hominin species that vanished from the cave’s archaeological record ~60 to 50 thousand years ago. However, Liang Bua also preserves a rich and relatively complete Holocene archaeological sequence that offers an unprecedented opportunity to examine modern human (Homo sapiens) cultural change through time, particularly the timing and nature of the complex transition of subsistence patterns from foraging to farming. The origins and spread of agriculture in Island Southeast Asia have been a source of longstanding inquiry and debate, but Liang Bua is relatively unique in that it preserves evidence before, during, and after this transition. This session will bring together researchers whose work explores various aspects of this body of archaeological and bioarchaeological evidence at Liang Bua and its implications for understanding human dispersals and cultural diffusion throughout Island Southeast Asia during the Holocene.
