NTU-EFEO Talk

Speaker:
Prof. Hubert FORESTIER
Professor, National Museum of Natural History (MNHN), Paris

Title:
Homo Sapiens in Southeast Asia:
The Story of the Emergence of the Hoabinhian Phenomenon

Date:
Thursday, December 4, 2025, at 12:30

Venue:
Room B106, Humanities Building, National Taiwan University

Abstract:
From the Last Glacial Maximum to the Holocene period in Southeast Asia, inland caves and rock shelters were inhabited by hunter-gatherer groups commonly referred to under the generic term 'Hoabinhian.' The "Hoabinhian stone culture" was previously recognized, described, and defined by French archaeologist Dr. Madeleine Colani (EFEO) following discoveries made in caves in Hoa Binh province in northern Vietnam in the 1920s-1930s.
During the First Congress of Prehistorians of the Far East in 1932, M. Colani argued for the presence of distinctive archaeological assemblage made on massive pebble tools called ‘Hoabinhian.'  Starting with her first definition, we will look at the development, application and evolution of this technocomplex over almost a century of prehistoric research in Southeast Asia. We will also question how the ‘Hoabinhian,' within its chronological and cultural context, came to represent the most significant lithic phenomenon of the modern human behavioural during  the Later prehistory of Mainland Southeast Asia.

Organizers: Department of Anthropology, National Taiwan University & EFEO Taipei Center.

※ The talk will be given in English. Registration is not required.


 conference