
Alfred PawlikAteneo de Manila University · Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Alfred Pawlik
Professor Dr. rer. nat.
Anthropological and Sociological Initatives of the Ateneo (ASIA)
About
120
Publications
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Introduction
Alfred Pawlik works at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ateneo de Manila University. Alfred does research on the Prehistory of Southeast Asia and Europe, on Traceology and Prehistoric Technology, Maritime Interaction and Adaptation. He heads interdisciplinary research projects on early human mobility and their socio-cultural and technological advancement since the Late Pleistocene with excavations in Mindoro, Ilin Island, and the Visayas.
Additional affiliations
August 2019 - present
May 2004 - September 2006
August 2009 - July 2010
Publications
Publications (120)
Archaeological research in the Philippines has significantly intensified over the past 20 years and is producing useful insights into the Prehistory of this diverse archipelago that is of relevance for entire Island Southeast Asia (ISEA). Variability in landscape formation, sea level and landmass influenced mobility, subsistence strategies and beha...
In this paper, we review the current Philippine archaeological record between c. 14,000 and 4000 cal. bp in the context of our developing understanding of human adaptation to post-glacial environments at the end of the Pleistocene, and the cultural and technological changes that were occurring across Southeast Asia during this period. Due to their...
The Prehistory of Human Migration - Human Expansion, Resource Use, and Mortuary Practice in Maritime Asia presents the current state of archaeological research on the migration and expansion of the first modern humans (Homo sapiens) into the maritime regions of Asia and Oceania. This area, which stretches geographically from the North and Southeast...
Around 50,000 years ago, early modern humans migrated from Island Southeast Asia and via the Wallacean islands into the continent of Sahul in Oceania by several sea crossings. The Wallacean archipelago can be broadly divided into northern Wallacea comprising the northern Indonesian islands and most of the Philippine islands, except Palawan, and sou...
Key Points
• Traceology is the method of determining the former function of tools from archaeological contexts
• Also known as use-wear or microwear analysis, it examines microscopic traces on artifacts related to uses and activities
• It compares wear traces of experimental as well as ethnohistorical tools with traces on archaeological tools
• Tra...
Marine adaptations are considered to have been significant factors in the evolution of our species (Homo sapiens). As humans dispersed from Africa around 100 kya, marine resources provided essential nutrients in island environments of the tropical Southeast Asian seas. The Philippine archipelago has revealed significant evidence of early human sett...
The region of Wallacea has become a hotspot of archaeological research due to significant new discoveries that are changing our understanding and theories about early human history. Anatomically modern humans (AMH) began to migrate and expand to Wallacea and Sahul in Oceania over 45,000 years ago, making this one of the earliest regions with a pres...
A large part of our material culture is made of organic materials, and this was likely the case also during prehistory. Amongst this prehistoric organic material culture are textiles and cordages, taking advantage of the flexibility and resistance of plant fibres. While in very exceptional cases and under very favourable circumstances, fragments of...
Representatives of the Diodontidae family (porcupinefish) are known to have been fished by prehistoric Indo-Pacific populations; however, the antiquity of the use of this family is thus far unknown. We report here on the presence of Diodontidae in the archaeological sites of Bubog I, II, and Bilat in Mindoro, Philippines, dating back to c. 13,000 B...
Archaeological research in the Philippines has produced a timeline of currently over 700,000 years of human occupation. However, while an initial presence of early hominins has been securely established through several radiometric dates between 700 ka to 1 ma from Luzon Island, there is currently little evidence for the presence of hominins after t...
Use-wear, microwear, or traceological analysis is a method for the identification of prehistoric tool use and associated activities. While this method can be applied to any lithic and some non-lithic materials, use-wear analysis plays, in particular, an important role in understanding amorphous flake tools from Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) during t...
Maritime migration and island adaptation by anatomically modern humans (AMH) are among the most significant current issues in Southeast Asian archaeology and directly related to their behavioural and technological advancement. In the center of this research hotspot are the Wallacean islands, situated between the Pleistocene landmasses of Sunda and...
The advanced cognitive capability of Homo sapiens significantly facilitated their adaptability to a wide range of environments during their dispersal out of Africa during the Late Middle Pleistocene. In this matter, marine environments with their dense concentrations of fauna, rich in fatty acid nutrients, are thought to have been important in subs...
Recent excavations in Topogaro 2 Cave, Central Sulawesi produced an archaeological sequence beginning c. 29 ka. The site is located along the eastern coast of Sulawesi, a key location for prehistoric movements from mainland Southeast Asia to Sahul through Wallacea during the Late Pleistocene. In this paper, we test our hypothesis that prehistoric a...
Review of: Christophe Delage (ed.), 2018. The Grotte du Placard at 150. New Considerations on an Exceptional Prehistoric Site. Oxford: Archaeopress.
[English version in linked data]
The site of Goa Topogaro (Topogaro Caves) on Sulawesi Island in Eastern Indonesia yields numerous osseous and lithic artefacts in association with anatomically modern humans (AMH) from the late Pleistocene and Holocene. Sulawesi is the largest island in Wallacea and could have been located along the early AMH migration routes to Sahul that required...
Open Access: https://www.intechopen.com/books/pleistocene-archaeology-migration-technology-and-adaptation
Island migration and adaptation including both marine and terrestrial resource use and technological development by anatomically modern humans (AMH) are among the most significant issues for Pleistocene archaeology in Southeast Asia and Oceania, and directly related to the behavioral and technological advancements by AMH. This paper discusses such...
Actual use-wear method is successfully used for study the sets of tools from diff erent species of raw materials applicable not only to the Stone Age, but also to subsequent eras. This requires the expansion of the experimental base of tool standards, which is necessary for verifi cation of functional analysis, interpretation of the features of anc...
Special issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
This special issue compiles recent research on the reconstruction of prehistoric technologies and the identification of function and the uses of ancient tools made of stone, bone, shell and other materials used by early humans. This extensive volume stems from two scientific session...
Maritime migration and island adaptation by anatomically modern humans
(AMH) are among the most significant issues in Southeast Asian anthropology and archaeology, and directly related to their behavioural and technological advancements. A major research hotspot is Wallacean islands located between the past Sunda and Sahul continents during the lat...
The existence of an organic or plant-based technology during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene is an ongoing debate in Island Southeast Asia (ISEA). Evidence of plant-based technologies in the current archaeological record of ISEA is very limited. Nevertheless, excavations of prehistoric sites across the region have provided clues that plants...
Expedient lithic technology has been described as unchanging and without or very limited presence of formal tool types. However, this premise seems to limit the discussion on technological and behavioural complexity when studying amorphous flake industries. To address this issue, we employed multi-stage use-wear analysis to identify features that a...
The Bubog-1 rockshelter on Ilin Island has provided important evidence for Late Pleistocene to Mid-Holocene (c. 33 000–4000 cal BP) human habitation, yet little is known about the contemporaneous transmission of material culture, technology and mortuary practices across Island Southeast Asia. Recent archaeological research at Bubog-1 has revealed a...
В хозяйственной жизни разных исторических эпох костное сырье широко использовалось для
изготовления различных орудий, украшений, бытовых и вотивных предметов. Большое значение для
изучения этих материалов имеют экспериментально-трасологичеческие исследования. В результате
многолетних работ специализированных экспедиций ЛОИА АН СССР / ИИМК РАН была...
Subsistence adaptations to coastal environments and the capacity to take advantage of mangrove swamps has likely played an important role in the success of the maritime colonization of Southeast Asian and Wallacean islands by modern humans. Yet, ichthyoarchaeological studies remain rare in this part of the world. Bubog I rockshelter (Ilin Island, s...
The presence of notches on European Palaeolithic flaked stone tools termed ‘denticulates’ has been variously ascribed to cultural, functional and taphonomic factors. In Southeast Asia prehistoric stone tool assemblages are dominated by unretouched flakes, so the rare retouched lithics, including denticulates, can be considered unique testimonies of...
The Philippines from c. 14,000 to 4,000 cal. bp in Regional Context – CORRIGENDUM - Alfred F. Pawlik, Philip J. Piper
Ethnographic and historical records in the Philippines document the use of vines for cordage, mats, baskets, hats, medicine, and furniture. Similar usage has been assumed in the more distant past (i.e., neolithic); however, no material evidence has so far been found probably owing to unfavorable conditions inhibiting preservation of this particular...
Ethnographic and historical records in the Philippines document the use of vines for cordage, mats, baskets, hats, medicine, and furniture. Similar usage has been assumed in the more distant past (i.e., neolithic); however, no material evidence has so far been
found probably owing to unfavorable conditions inhibiting preservation of this particular...
Bubog I and Bubog II rockshelters on Ilin Island, San Jose, Mindoro Occidental, and Bilat Cave located in Sta. Teresa, Magsaysay, Mindoro Occidental, have revealed the currently earliest human-induced shell-midden dated from c. 32,000 BP to 4,000 BP in the Philippines. Several vertebrate remains have been recovered here mostly from marine environme...
The Bubog I rockshelter (Ilin Island, Southwestern Mindoro, Philippines) has revealed a human induced shell midden spanning from the Terminal Pleistocene to the Middle Holocene. Several vertebrate remains have been recovered here mostly from marine environments. This unique study for an island in Southeast Asia highlights the subsistence behaviour...
The Ilin cloud rat Crateromys paulus, identified from a single individual in 1981 and collected from an undocumented location in Ilin Island, Mindoro, Philippines, is now considered to be ''data deficient'' and possibly extinct. 96 murid dental fossil remains were recently recovered within a two-meter excavation of well stratified and chronometrica...
Pleistocene and Holocene lithic assemblages found in Southeast Asia are characterised by simple production techniques and a paucity of formal stone tools. This situation led some scholars to hypothesise that this situation reflected an adaptation of prehistoric human groups to the rainforest and that these simple stone tools had been mainly used to...
In many parts of Eurasia, the Middle East and Southeast Asia where native wild suids occur it is notoriously difficult to differentiate these from introduced domestic pigs in the prehistoric archaeological record. Yet, correct identification of the initial appearance or introduction of domestic pigs (Sus scrofa) is essential for determining the tim...
Analysing residues on stone tools can reveal precise information about the activities that were conducted with the lithic tool and is a valuable technique to reconstruct past human behaviours. However, it is often difficult to assess the nature of the relationship between a residue and the artefact on which it is found. It is of great importance, t...
Inden-Altdorf in western Germany revealed the first open-site habitation features with associated hearths and stone tools for the Middle Palaeolithic in Central Europe. Various dating methods place the site into an earlier phase of MIS 5, between ca. 120–100 ka, and the time of early Neanderthals in Europe. Use-wear and residue analysis demonstrate...
Prehistoric stone tools discovered in Southeast Asia contrast with what is found in the rest of the world: they are simple and their production techniques remained unchanged for millennia. To explain these unique characteristics, some scholars offered what is called the “bamboo hypothesis”: if SE Asian stone tools are simple it would be because the...
The early Mesolithic site at Ullafelsen is at the centre of a landscape-archaeological project on the
Mesolithic in Tyrol (Austria). In this project, for the first time in a subalpine open air site in Austria,
mesolithic living floors were identified and explored in great detail. The analysis of the natural sedimentation
and soil-scientific process...
The study presents and evaluates a process to enhance residue AMS radiocarbon dating with a focus on contaminant confinement. Methods applied include 1) optical residue and use-wear analyses, 2) experimental designs addressing cleaning treatments to mitigate impact of contaminants, 3) preparation and extraction of residues from (mostly) previously...
Full manuscript available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440315
Abstract:
In this study we present and assess a process to enhance archaeological residue AMS dating by focusing on contaminant confinement. The sequence of methods applied consists of: 1) optical residue observation, 2) experimental designs addressing cleani...
Shell artefacts in Island Southeast Asia have often been considered local variants of ground-stone implements, introduced in the Late Pleistocene from Mainland Southeast Asia. The discovery of a wellpreserved Tridacna shell adze from Ilin Island in the Philippines, suggests, however, a different interpretation. Using radiocarbon dating, X-ray diffr...
Giemsch, L., Feine, S. C., Alt, K. W., Fu, Q., Knipper, C., Krause, J., Nehlich, O., Niess, C., Pääbo, S., Pawlik, A., Richards, M. P., Schünemann, V., Street, M., Thalmann, O., Tinnes, J., Trinkaus, E. & Schmitz, R. W. 2015: “Interdisciplinary investigations of the late glacial double burial from Bonn-Oberkassel”. The late glacial double burial fr...
Behavioral modernity has been a neglected topic in the prehistory of Southeast Asia. Such evidence remains
largely undocumented in the Paleolithic archaeological records of the region. Here, I report on the technological
and microwear analysis of stone artifacts from the terminal Pleistocene contexts at the Ille Cave, Palawan Island.
The results sh...
- actual Aspects of the Ullafelsen Project research
AMS radiocarbon dating of archaeological residues
on a carbon microgram scale is a relatively new field
in archaeological chronometric research. Successful
applications of the method demonstrate its feasibility
when working with such small sample sizes, but
also reveal challenges and problems arising around
contamination. In this paper we present a...
The recently discovered human remains from Callao Cave, northern Luzon, Philippines securely date the
migration of hominins into the Philippines to ca. 70 kya (thousands of years ago). The direct route to reach
Luzon from the Asian mainland is via Borneo, Palawan, through Mindoro and into Luzon. Our research
focuses on Mindoro Island as a potential...
The Ullafelsen (loc. Sellrain) is the oldest Mesolithic site in Austria. Since many years a broad interdisziplinary research includes aspects like climatology, geology, glaciology, (palaeo-)botany, sedimentology, soil science and prehistory. Between the middle Preboreal and the middle Boreal gatherer-hunters used the site and produced stone artefac...
The Philippines consist of 7,107 islands located at the northern limits of Wallacea and the northeastern fringes of the islands of Southeast Asia at latitude 13 o N and longitude 122 o E. It is separated from Borneo to the southwest by the Sulu Sea, from Mainland Southeast Asia to the northwest by the South China Sea, from Taiwan to the north by th...
This paper presents some preliminary results from a research project designed to identify, for the first time, prehistoric occupation sites in Mindoro Occidental, Philippines. The aim of the project was to identify cave and rocksheiter sites with potential to contain undisturbed Pleistocene deposits and thus the prospect to enhance knowledge about...
During the past ten years, our knowledge of Paleolithic industries in the Philippines has grown thanks to new excavations and discoveries of stone implements, but also thanks to new studies on older collections. The study of knapped stones in the Philippines dates back to the 1920s. At this time, stone tools were used as type fossils to propose an...
Behavioral modernity has been a widely neglected topic for Southeast Asia’s prehistory. Evidence of modern packages or even traits is basically absent in the Palaeolithic assemblages. This absence has considerably influenced the discussion of hominid behavior and their cultural and cognitive abilities. In a case study on terminal Pleistocene artifa...