Age control of the first appearance datum for Javanese in the Sangiran area.

The chronology of the World Heritage Site of Sangiran in Indonesia is crucial for the understanding of human dispersals and settlement in Asia in the Early Pleistocene (before 780,000 years ago). It has been controversial, however, especially regarding the timing of the earliest hominin migration into the Sangiran region. We use a method of combining fission-track and uranium-lead dating and present key ages to calibrate the lower (older) Sangiran hominin-bearing horizons.

Advanced maritime adaptation in the western Pacific coastal region extends back to 35,000-30,000 years before present.

Maritime adaptation was one of the essential factors that enabled modern humans to disperse all over the world. However, geographic distribution of early maritime technology during the Late Pleistocene remains unclear. At this time, the Indonesian Archipelago and eastern New Guinea stand as the sole, well-recognized area for secure Pleistocene evidence of repeated ocean crossings and advanced fishing technology.

The first archaic Homo from Taiwan.

Recent studies of an increasing number of hominin fossils highlight regional and chronological diversities of archaic Homo in the Pleistocene of eastern Asia. However, such a realization is still based on limited geographical occurrences mainly from Indonesia, China and Russian Altai. Here we describe a newly discovered archaic Homo mandible from Taiwan (Penghu 1), which further increases the diversity of Pleistocene Asian hominins.

High-resolution record of the Matuyama-Brunhes transition constrains the age of Javanese Homo erectus in the Sangiran dome, Indonesia.

A detailed paleomagnetic study conducted in the Sangiran area, Java, has provided a reliable age constraint on hominid fossil-bearing formations. A reverse-to-normal polarity transition marks a 7-m thick section across the Upper Tuff in the Bapang Formation. The transition has three short reversal episodes and is overlain by a thick normal polarity magnetozone that was fission-track dated to the Brunhes chron.

Single tooth tells us the date of birth.

The atmospheric carbon-14 ((14)C) concentration remained relatively stable until 1955, but then rapidly increased after 1955 by nuclear bomb tests, peaked in 1963, and decreased thereafter. Recently, Spalding et al. proposed epoch-making method for determining date of birth (DOB) using the tooth enamel (14)C incorporated during enamel formation.

Paleodemography of a medieval population in Japan: analysis of human skeletal remains from the Yuigahama-minami site.

The purpose of this study is to obtain demographic data regarding the medieval population buried at the Yuigahama-minami site in Kamakura, Japan, and to detect a secular trend in the life expectancy of Japanese population over the last several thousand years. The Yuigahama-minami skeletal sample consists of 260 individuals, including 98 subadults (under 20 years old) and 162 adults. A Yuigahama-minami abridged life-table analysis yielded a life expectancy at birth (e0) of 24.