Editing Java (section)

=== ''Homo erectus'' presence ===
[[File:Pithecanthropus_erectus-PeterMaas_Naturalis.jpg|thumb|The [[syntype]] fossils of Java Man (''H. e. erectus''), at [[Naturalis]], [[Leiden]]]]
[[File:Ngandong 14. Homo erectus.jpg|thumb|Cast of Skull XI at the [[Hall of Human Origins]], Washington, D.C.]]
Fossilised remains of ''[[Homo erectus]]'', popularly known as the "[[Java Man]]", dating back 1.3&nbsp;million<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Matsu’ura |first1=Shuji |last2=Kondo |first2=Megumi |last3=Danhara |first3=Toru |last4=Sakata |first4=Sheik |last5=Iwano |first5=Hideki |last6=Hirata |first6=Takafumi |last7=Kurniawan |first7=Iwan |last8=Setiyabudi |first8=Erik |last9=Takeshita |first9=Yoshihiro |last10=Hyodo |first10=Masayuki |last11=Kitaba |first11=Ikuko |last12=Sudo Masafumi |last13=Danhara |first13=Yugo |last14=Aziz |first14=Fachroel |date=2020 |title=Age control of the first appearance datum for Javanese Homo erectus in the Sangiran area |journal=Science |volume=367 |issue=6474 |pages=210–214 |doi=10.1126/science.aau8556 |pmid=31919224 |bibcode=2020Sci...367..210M |s2cid=210131393|doi-access=free }}</ref> years were found along the banks of the [[Solo River|Bengawan Solo River]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pope |title=Recent advances in far eastern paleoanthropology |journal=Annual Review of Anthropology |volume=17 |pages=43–77 |year=1988 |doi=10.1146/annurev.an.17.100188.000355 |first1=G. G.}}
cited in {{cite book |last=Whitten |first=T. |author2=Soeriaatmadja, R. E. |author3=Suraya A. A. |title=The Ecology of Java and Bali |publisher=Periplus Editions Ltd |year=1996 |location=Hong Kong |pages=309–312}}; {{cite journal |last=Pope |first=G. |title=Evidence on the Age of the Asian Hominidae |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=80 |issue=16 |pages=4,988–4992 |date=15 August 1983 |doi=10.1073/pnas.80.16.4988 |pmid=6410399 |pmc=384173 |bibcode=1983PNAS...80.4988P|doi-access=free}}
cited in
{{cite book |last=Whitten |first=T. |author2=Soeriaatmadja, R. E. |author3=Suraya A. A. |title=The Ecology of Java and Bali |publisher=Periplus Editions Ltd |year=1996 |location=Hong Kong |page=309}};
{{cite journal |last=de Vos |first=J. P. |author2=P. Y. Sondaar |title=Dating hominid sites in Indonesia |journal=Science Magazine |volume=266 |issue=16 |pages=4,988–4992 |date=9 December 1994 |url=http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/266/5191/1726.pdf |doi=10.1126/science.7992059 |bibcode=1994Sci...266.1726D|doi-access=free}}
cited in {{cite book |last=Whitten |first=T |author2=Soeriaatmadja, R. E. |author3=Suraya A. A. |title=The Ecology of Java and Bali |publisher=Periplus Editions Ltd |year=1996 |location=Hong Kong |page=309}}</ref>

''H. erectus'' arrived in Eurasia approximately 1.8 million years ago, in an event considered to be the first African exodus.<ref>{{Cite journal| doi=10.1111/ggi.12224| pmid=25327904| pmc=4285791| title=Geriatric issues from the standpoint of human evolution| journal=Geriatrics & Gerontology International| volume=14| issue=4| pages=731–34| year=2014| last1=Matsubayashi| first1=Kozo}}</ref> There is evidence that the Java population of ''H. erectus'' lived in an ever-wet forest habitat. More specifically the environment resembled a [[savannah]], but was likely regularly inundated ("hydromorphic savanna"). The plants found at the Trinil excavation site included grass ([[Poaceae]]), [[fern]]s, ''[[Ficus]]'', and ''[[Indigofera]]'', which are typical of lowland rainforest.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ingicco |first1=Thomas |last2=de Vos |first2=John |last3=Huffman |first3=O. Frank |year=2014| title=The Oldest Gibbon Fossil (Hylobatidae) from Insular Southeast Asia: Evidence from Trinil, (East Java, Indonesia), Lower/Middle Pleistocene |journal=[[PLOS ONE|PLoS ONE]]|volume=9|issue=6|at=e99531|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0099531|pmid=24914951 |pmc=4051846 |bibcode=2014PLoSO...999531I |doi-access=free}}</ref>

[[Solo Man|''H.&nbsp;e.&nbsp;soloensis'']] was the last population of a long occupation history of the island of Java by ''H.&nbsp;erectus'', beginning 1.51 to 0.93 million years ago at the Sangiran site, continuing 540 to 430 thousand years ago at the Trinil site, and finally 117 to 108 thousand years ago at Ngandong.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zaim |first1=Yahdi |last2=Ciochon |first2=Russell L. |last3=Polanski |first3=Joshua M. |last4=Grine |first4=Frederick E. |last5=Bettis |first5=E. Arthur |last6=Rizal |first6=Yan |last7=Franciscus |first7=Robert G. |last8=Larick |first8=Roy R. |last9=Heizler |first9=Matthew |last10=Aswan |first10=null |last11=Eaves |first11=K. Lindsay |last12=Marsh |first12=Hannah E. |title=New 1.5 million-year-old Homo erectus maxilla from Sangiran (Central Java, Indonesia) |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21783226/ |journal=Journal of Human Evolution |date=2011 |volume=61 |issue=4 |pages=363–376 |doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.04.009 |issn=1095-8606 |pmid=21783226|bibcode=2011JHumE..61..363Z }}</ref> If the date is correct for Solo Man, then they would represent a terminal population of ''H.&nbsp;erectus'' which sheltered in the last open-habitat refuges of East Asia before the rainforest takeover. Before the immigration of modern humans, Late Pleistocene Southeast Asia was also home to ''[[Homo floresiensis|H.&nbsp;floresiensis]]'' endemic to the island of [[Flores]], Indonesia, and ''[[Homo luzonensis|H.&nbsp;luzonensis]]'' endemic to the island of [[Luzon]], the Philippines. Genetic analysis of present-day Southeast Asian populations indicates the widespread dispersal of the [[Denisovans]] (a species currently recognisable only by their genetic signature) across Southeast Asia, whereupon they interbred with immigrating modern humans 45.7 and 29.8 thousand years ago.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}} A 2021 genomic study indicates that, aside from the Denisovans, modern humans never interbred with any of these endemic human species, unless the offspring were [[hybrid incompatibility|unviable]] or the hybrid lineages have since died out.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}

Judging by the sheer number of specimens deposited at Ngandong at the same time, there may have been a sizeable population of ''H.&nbsp;e&nbsp;soloensis'' before the volcanic eruption which resulted in their interment, but population is difficult to approximate with certainty. This site is quite far from the north coast of Java Island, and it is not always easy to determine the position of the coastline in prehistoric times because of significant geographical changes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Rizal |first1=Yan |last2=Westaway |first2=Kira E. |last3=Zaim |first3=Yahdi |last4=van den Bergh |first4=Gerrit D. |last5=Bettis |first5=E. Arthur |last6=Morwood |first6=Michael J. |last7=Huffman |first7=O. Frank |last8=Grün |first8=Rainer |last9=Joannes-Boyau |first9=Renaud |last10=Bailey |first10=Richard M. |last11=Sidarto |last12=Westaway |first12=Michael C. |last13=Kurniawan |first13=Iwan |last14=Moore |first14=Mark W. |last15=Storey |first15=Michael |date=18 December 2019 |title=Last appearance of Homo erectus at Ngandong, Java, 117,000–108,000 years ago |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1863-2 |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=577 |issue=7790 |pages=381–385 |doi=10.1038/s41586-019-1863-2 |pmid=31853068 |issn=1476-4687|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The southern coastline and estuary of the Bengawan Solo River at that time may have been different from what it is today, due to geological factors such as sedimentation, erosion, and changes in sea level over time. Currently, the estuary of the Bengawan Solo is in the Java Sea, but in prehistoric times, the river flow and estuary location may have changed. Geological and paleogeographic studies are often used to understand these changes.