Climats, paysages et premiers peuplements des îles : le patrimoine de l'histoire de l'humanité en Asie du sud-est insulaire

Human earliest dispersals in the Southeast Asian archipelagos occurred quite quickly after the arrival of the Homo genus in Eurasia, some 2 million years ago. It represents a sound and early example of human adaptation to climatic and environmental changes, which deeply impacted the regional geography. Homo erectus lived in those archipelagos for nearly one and a half million years. Humans followed ecological corridors - as other faunal groups did, but they also built their territories in the newly colonized environments. Following sea-level drops, expansion and fragmentation of the tropical forests, they could reach islands beyond the Wallace's Line. Resulting H. erectus endemic lineages could mix with other groups originating from the mainland, before the taxon became extinct, most probably during the Late Pleistocene, a period during which it could have co-existed with the earliest H. sapiens in the archipelagos. This history, during which we witness the recurrent influence of parameters related to climate, geography, landscapes, evolution, adaptation, resilience and also cultural adaptation and relationships between humans and nature, relates major chapters of human evolution: it is a good example of the indivisibility of natural and cultural aspects of the heritage.