Résumé
With the discoveries of new fossils from historically well-studied as well as poorly sampled regions, and thanks to great advances in paleogenetic studies, Asian paleoanthropology has now entered a new phase of research. In particular, fossil discoveries from insular Southeast Asia demonstrate unique pathways of hominin evolution that contrast markedly with the continental pattern, while new fossils from the latter region reveal the hitherto unrecognized great range of morphological diversity that characterized pre-sapiens archaic Asian Homo. Furthermore, extensive analyses of Denisovan and modern human genomes offer a new framework in which the existing Asian fossil record can be interpreted. In this lecture, I review these developments in two main areas: the origins and evolution of archaic Homo groups during the Middle Pleistocene, and dispersals and diversification of early modern humans in Asia.
