 South entrance to the cave | |
  Tam Pa Ling Cave location inLaos | |
| Alternative name | Cave of the Monkeys |
|---|---|
| Location | Houaphanh Province, northernLaos 260 km (160 mi) NNE ofVientiane |
| Region | Annamite Mountains |
| Coordinates | 20°12′31″N103°24′35″E / 20.20861°N 103.40972°E /20.20861; 103.40972 |
| Altitude | 1,170 m (3,839 ft)[1] |
| Type | Cave |
| Part of | Pa Hang Mountain |
| Length | 40 m (130 ft) |
| Width | 30 m (98 ft) |
| History | |
| Material | limestone,karst |
| Periods | Upper Paleolithic,Middle Paleolithic |
| Associated with | Paleo-humans |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 2008-ongoing[1] |
| Archaeologists | Fabrice Demeter, Laura Shackleford |
Tam Pa Ling (Cave of the Monkeys) is a cave in theAnnamite Mountains in north-easternLaos. It is situated at the top of Pa Hang Mountain, 1,170 m (3,840 ft) above sea level.
Threehomininfossils have been discovered in the cave:TPL1, a skull belonging to ananatomically modern human;TPL2, amandible with both modern andarchaic traits; andTPL3, a partial mandible with both modern and archaic traits. The three fossils represent three separate individuals and date from around 70,000 to 46,000 years old.[1] The discoveries indicate that modern humans may have migrated toSoutheast Asia by 60,000BP.[2][3][4]
Tam Pa Ling has a single, south-facing opening and descends 65 m (213 ft) to its main gallery. It is part of a network ofkarst caves, formed by thedissolution oflimestone beds that were laid down between theUpper Carboniferous andPermian periods. The main gallery measures 30 m (98 ft) from north to south and 40 m (130 ft) from east to west.[5]
Excavations at the eastern end of the cave's main gallery, at the base of the sloped entrance, were conducted by a team of American, French and Laotian researchers starting in 2009.[6][7]
The first fossil find, a hominin skull dubbedTPL1, was recovered at a depth of 2.35 m (7 ft 9 in) in December 2009. A mandible,TPL2, was found the following year at a depth of 2.65 m (8 ft 8 in).Radiocarbon andluminescence dating of the sediments established a minimum age of 51,000 to 46,000 years, and directuranium-thorium dating of the fossils indicated a maximum age of 63,000 years.[7]
TPL1 includes thefrontal, partialoccipital,right parietal, andtemporal bone, as well as the right and leftmaxillae and a largely completedentition. It was identified as belonging to ananatomically modern human with distinctSub-Saharan African features. As of 2017[update], it provides the earliest skeletal evidence for the presence ofHomo sapiens inmainland Southeast Asia.[1]
TheTPL2 mandible was found lower down in the same stratigraphic unit asTPL1, and represents a mature adult that combinesarchaic human features such as a robustmandibular corpus and small overall size, with modern human traits like a developedchin.[8][9]
In 2013, researchers recovered the partial mandible of a third fossil find,TPL3, at a depth of 5.0 m (16.4 ft), from the same area as the previous finds. The bone fragment likely belonged to an adult. LikeTPL2,TPL3 exhibits a mix of archaic and anatomically modern human traits, exhibiting modern human features such as having a developed chin but not having a robust mandibular corpus; however,TPL3 also retains archaic human features such as having a broad anterior mandibular arch. Luminescence dating of theTPL3 sediment layer provides a date range from around 70,000 to 48,000 years old.[1]
The timing of modern human migration from Africa to East Asia is not known with certainty; because bone is poorly preserved in tropical climates, human fossils from the region are rare. Recent discoveries in China, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Australia had previously established that archaic human fossils were present between 125,000 and 100,000 BP, and those of modern humans from about 40,000 BP. The discovery of the fully modernTPL1 specimen was therefore considered a major discovery because it filled in a 60,000-year gap in the fossil record, demonstrating the presence of modern humans in Southeast Asia from at least 60,000 BP. Additionally, as Tam Pa Ling lies a thousand miles inland, the finds challenged previous assumptions that humans migrated out of Africa by following coastlines. They suggest that the migration may also have proceeded along river valleys, which served as natural corridors through the continent.[10]
The fossils were temporarily removed to the United States for study bypaleoanthropologist Laura Shackleford, Fabrice Demeter and the team. In April 2016 they were returned to Laos, and are now housed in a new building of theLao National Museum inVientiane.[11]
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