Letter https://doi.org/10.

1038/s41586-018-0072-8

Earliest known hominin activity in the Philippines

by 709 thousand years ago
T. Ingicco1,2,3,4*, G. D. van den Bergh5, C. Jago-on6, J.-J. Bahain1,2,3,4, M. G. Chacón1,2,3,4,7,8, N. Amano9, H. Forestier1,2,3,4,
C. King6, K. Manalo10, S. Nomade11,12,13, A. Pereira1,2,3,4,11,12,13,14,15, M. C. Reyes6,10*, A.-M. Sémah1,2,3,4,16, Q. Shao17,
P. Voinchet1,2,3,4, C. Falguères1,2,3,4, P. C. H. Albers18, M. Lising6,19, G. Lyras20, D. Yurnaldi21, P. Rochette22,23,24,25,26, A. Bautista6
& J. de Vos18

Over 60 years ago, stone tools and remains of megafauna were In 2013, a survey of the Cagayan Valley near the Rizal Municipality
discovered on the Southeast Asian islands of Flores, Sulawesi and (Kalinga Province) led to the discovery of a concentration of vertebrate
Luzon, and a Middle Pleistocene colonization by Homo erectus was bones and stone artefacts scattered on the surface near what became
initially proposed to have occurred on these islands1–4. However, our new excavation site. The Kalinga site (17° 33′ 45.0318″ N, 121° 33′
until the discovery of Homo floresiensis in 2003, claims of the 35.7372″ E) (Fig. 1b) has been excavated annually since 2014 and has
presence of archaic hominins on Wallacean islands were hypothetical resulted in the discovery of in situ megafauna and associated stone
owing to the absence of in situ fossils and/or stone artefacts that artefacts. The substrate consists of the upper part of the Awidon Mesa
were excavated from well-documented stratigraphic contexts, Formation, a 400-m thick sequence of alluvial stream deposits (mainly
or because secure numerical dating methods of these sites were sandstones and claystones) intercalated with volcaniclastic and pyro-
lacking. As a consequence, these claims were generally treated with clastic layers (Fig. 1a). These sediments were deposited on an alluvial
scepticism5. Here we describe the results of recent excavations at fan system in braided streams of the paleo-Chico River as a conse-
Kalinga in the Cagayan Valley of northern Luzon in the Philippines quence of uplift in the Central Cordillera to the west12,13. During a
that have yielded 57 stone tools associated with an almost-complete poorly constrained Pleistocene phase of folding in response to east–
disarticulated skeleton of Rhinoceros philippinensis, which shows west compression, alluvial fan deposition in the Kalinga area came to
clear signs of butchery, together with other fossil fauna remains a halt.
attributed to stegodon, Philippine brown deer, freshwater turtle We conducted the main 16-m2 excavation at the head of a modern,
and monitor lizard. All finds originate from a clay-rich bone bed dry stream valley, north of a small hill and down to a maximum depth
that was dated to between 777 and 631 thousand years ago using of 2 m (Fig. 1c and Supplementary Information). A 25 × 1-m2 slot
electron-spin resonance methods that were applied to tooth enamel trench was excavated down the hill to the main excavation. Together,
and fluvial quartz. This evidence pushes back the proven period of these excavations revealed a total of 7.5 m of stratigraphy comprising
colonization6 of the Philippines by hundreds of thousands of years, four main sedimentary units, in ascending order: unit A, unit F, unit G
and furthermore suggests that early overseas dispersal in Island and unit J (Fig. 1d, e and Extended Data Fig. 1). An almost-complete
South East Asia by premodern hominins took place several times disarticulated skeleton of R. philippinensis (Extended Data Fig. 2) was
during the Early and Middle Pleistocene stages1–4. The Philippines found embedded in the basal sediments of unit F lying across the base
therefore may have had a central role in southward movements into of an erosional channel surface that cuts down vertically into sandy unit
Wallacea, not only of Pleistocene megafauna7, but also of archaic A. This channel was filled with an up to 3.25-m thick mudflow (unit F;
hominins. see Extended Data Fig. 3, 4), which covered the bones, along with an in
The most recent recoveries in Flores8,9 and Sulawesi10 (Indonesia) situ tektite as well as 57 stone tools and sparse fossils of other animals
provide a unique documentation of overseas hominin dispersal during (Geoemydidae, Varanus cf. salvator, Stegodon cf. luzonensis and Cervus
the early Middle Pleistocene epoch. An early presence in the Philippine cf. mariannus) (see Supplementary Information). The archaeological
archipelago has been hypothesized since the 1950s, with the reporting layer (unit F) is conformably overlaid by an approximately 1.15-m
of presumably Pleistocene megafaunal remains and ‘Palaeolithic’ indus- thick, sterile, cross-bedded coarse sandy fluvial unit with silty lenses
tries consisting of chopping tools and flakes (the ‘Cabalwanian’ and (unit G), which is in turn conformably overlaid by unit H, a 2.5-m thick
‘Liwanian’ industries, respectively) from surface finds and excavations silty pedogenized layer with rhyzoliths.
in the Cagayan Valley basin of northern Luzon3,4. Despite the fact that The 57 stone artefacts account for six cores, 49 flakes and two
these early discoveries took place more than 60 years ago, no direct possible hammer stones that all originated from unit F (Fig. 2 and
association between megafauna and lithic industries has been docu- Supplementary Information). With the exception of the two possible
mented since then, and no secure numerical dating of both fossil fauna hammer stones (Fig. 2b), all artefacts lack a patinated lustre and have
and lithics has been available for this region11. To date, the discovery of a fresh appearance, indicating that any transport was minimal. The
a human metatarsal in Callao Cave in northern Luzon6, directly dated knapping strategies were oriented towards short and unorganized
to 66.7 ± 1.0 thousand years ago (ka), represented the oldest evidence core reduction, resulting in non-standardized flake morphologies
of the peopling of the Philippines. and dimensions, and all artefacts lacked any intentional retouch.
1
UMR 7194, CNRS, Paris, France. 2Département Homme et Environnement, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France. 3Université de Perpignan Via Domitia, Perpignan, France.
4
Sorbonne Université, Paris, France. 5Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. 6National
Museum of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines. 7IPHES – Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Tarragona, Spain. 8Area de Prehistoria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV),
Tarragona, Spain. 9Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany. 10Archaeological Studies Program, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines.
11
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, CEA, Gif Sur Yvette Cedex, France. 12UMR 8212, CNRS, Gif Sur Yvette Cedex, France. 13Université Paris-Saclay, Gif Sur Yvette Cedex,
France. 14Ecole française de Rome, Roma, Italy. 15Sezione di scienze preistoriche e antropologiche, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy. 16Institut de
Recherche pour le Développement, UMR LOCEAN 7159, Bondy, France. 17School of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China. 18Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden,
Netherlands. 19Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City, Philippines. 20Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment National and Kapodistrian University
of Athens, Athens, Greece. 21Centre for Geological Survey, Geological Agency, Bandung, Indonesia. 22Aix-Marseille Université, Aix en Provence, France. 23UM34 CNRS, Aix en Provence, France.
24
IRD, Aix en Provence, France. 25Collège de France, Paris, France. 26CEREGE, Aix en Provence, France. *e-mail: ingicco@mnhn.fr; mariancreyes@gmail.com

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© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. All rights reserved.
 RESEARCH Letter

b 110° 0.000′ E 120° 0.000′ E 130° 0.000′ E

a 4,000 Taiwan Is.

2,500

20° 0.000′ N
1,000
500

Elevation (m)
100 Kalinga
0
–35 Luzon Is.
–500
Apayao province –1,500

10° 0.000′ N
Depth –3,500
d –6,000

x l e y ’ s li n e
Cagayan province (m)
10

Barung
Callao Cave Topsoil
Cordillera Central

0.5

Hu
line
0

ce’s
Cabalwan

En
alla
r
ile
0 W
Chico River

Tuguegarao

0° 0.000′
Kalinga Unit H Borneo Is.
10

Da

Liwan Norte
gu

Sierra Madre
Sulawesi Is.
pa

Pa
n

ng
20

Kalinga province Rizal

Ca
ul

–1
ga
ya
n

Isabela province
Ri

10° 0.000′ S
Java Is.
ve
r
30 km

122.000° E –2

Waterways Anticlines Ilagan Fm Awidon Mesa Fm Mabaca Young Aluvium

Unit G e
Palaeomag.
normal polarity
Unit H
–3 ESR quartz
Main excavation 701 ± 70 ka
Trench J Trench H
c 40Ar/39Ar
1,007 ± 29 ka
Unit G
7 5
North 5 –4
3
1
3

3 1 5 Unit F
0.5
0
5
–1

–1
3

–5
–1 –3
–3 Unit F
–5 ESR/U–Th
121.5602
–3 –7 enamel
709 ± 68 ka
121.560 17.5618
–6 Australasian
17.5620 tektite Unit A
121.5598 17.5622
Unit A
17.5624 Silt
ESR quartz
Clay 727 ± 30 ka
121.5596 17.5626
Coarse sand Palaeosoil –7
17.5628 Cross-bedding sand Fine sand 40Ar/39Ar

Tabular cross-bedding sand 1,050 ± 28 ka

17.563

Fig. 1 | Geology and sedimentology of the Kalinga Excavation site. of the excavation with the absolute ages of the sedimentary units. Unit A
a, Digital elevation map of the Cagayan Valley surrounding the Rizal constitutes a fining upward complex of sandy to silty cross-bedded fluvial
municipality (located in b, Northern Luzon Island, east of Huxley’s and sediments. The top of unit A is eroded and cuts down vertically over
north of the Wallace Lines). The Kalinga site (red star) is located at the at least 2.5 m. This erosive channel is filled with unit F, a poorly sorted
southern tip of the weakly folded Cabalwan Anticline. Geological units mudflow deposit with a maximum thickness of 3.25 m. The rhinoceros
of the area bounded by the Cagayan River on the east and the Chico skeletal elements and most of the stone artefacts were found lying directly
River on the west are after Mathisen13. Stratigraphically, the site layers above the erosional contact, and were found embedded in the clay-rich
pertain to the upper part of the Awidon Mesa Formation, a Pleistocene mud of unit F. Unit F is conformably overlaid by a sequence of horizontally
sequence of alluvial stream deposits intercalated with volcaniclastic and layered coarse sandy to silty layers (unit G), which is in turn conformably
pyroclastic deposits. The depositional environment of the Awidon Mesa overlaid by a thick sequence of silty deposits overprinted by palaeosols
Formation was characterized by braided rivers on an alluvial fan system (unit H). e, Southward view of trench H showing the lower and upper
that formed in response to uplift in the Cordillera Central to the West12,13. contacts between mudflow unit F and sandy unit G and between sandy
c, Contour map of the main excavation and the adjoining trench H along unit A and mudflow unit F.
the small valley where the Kalinga site is located. d, Detailed stratigraphy

The Kalinga lithic assemblage is diverse in its techniques, technology that transport prior or during deposition of mudflow unit F was
and final products, and appears similar to the chert industry described minimal.
at the Arubo 1 site14 (see Supplementary Information). Also recovered Thirteen of the excavated rhinoceros bones, all of which in life had a
from the unit F excavation area was a 600-g pebble among hundreds thin cover of soft tissue (that is, the ribs and metacarpals)15,16, display
of pebbles that were all lighter than 200 g, and which we interpret as a cut marks (Fig. 3 and Extended Data Fig. 2). Both rhinoceros humeri
possible manuport. have similar percussion marks on the anterior surface for the right
Among the more than 400 bones recovered from unit F, the humerus and on the posterior surface for the left humerus, and both
most striking remains were of a disarticulated, approximately were presumably made with the intention to smash the bones and gain
75% complete skeleton of a single R. philippinensis individual access to the marrow17. This percussion action resulted in the break-
(Fig. 3 and Extended Data Fig. 2). The bones were found lying age of the left humerus into five pieces, which is the only bone found
on top of the erosional surface down-cutting unit A, and were fragmented; however, the fragments were still clustered together within
embedded in the basal clay-rich sediments of unit F along the a small 1-m2 area of the excavation. On the right humerus, however,
deepest part of the paleo-channel bed (Extended Data Fig. 3). percussion did not result in the fragmentation of the bone (Fig. 3).
Although none of the rhinoceros bones were found articu- To constrain the age of the bone bed and the stone artefacts it con-
lated, the recovered skeletal elements occur within a 3 × 2-m2 tained, we applied three different dating methods to various materials
area, suggesting that disarticulation occurred sub-aerially and (Fig. 1). Single crystal 40Ar/39Ar dating was applied to plagioclase

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 Letter RESEARCH

a b

0 2.5 5.0 cm

0 2.5 5.0 cm

c e

0 2.5 5.0 cm
0 2.5 5.0 cm

0 2.5 5.0 cm

Fig. 2 | Lithic artefacts from Kalinga. a, Cortical flake on chert T = 8 mm) that has a longitudinal and oblique fracture on the inferior
(II-2014-J1-362; length (L) = 100 mm, breadth (B) = 55 mm, thickness two-thirds of the left side resulting from a knapping accident while flaking.
(T) = 33 mm). b, Possible hammerstone on dacite (II-2014-J1-371), d, Double-backed flake on flint (II-2014-J1-519). e, Core on quartz
although its highly eroded aspect precludes any definitive conclusion. (II-2014-J1-396), with clear marks of knapping on an anvil, and its
Arrows indicate crushed areas interpreted as the result of precussions. diachritic diagram. Arrows indicate the percusion axes.
c, Siret kombewa flake on jasper (II-2014-J1-391; L = 40 mm, B = 18 mm,

crystals from the sandy units directly below and above the archaeological a maximum age for the sequence (see Supplementary Information).
unit F and yielded two statistically undistinguishable weighted mean Taken together with the ESR dating results, it follows that the rhinoc-
dates of 1,050 ± 28 ka and 1,007 ± 29 ka, respectively (1σ confidence eros skeleton was buried by a mudflow at least 631 ka.
interval; Supplementary Information and Extended Data Fig. 5). These Our excavations at Kalinga and the numeric dating results clearly
40
Ar/39Ar dates yielded an age for the formation of the volcanic plagio­ provide securely dated evidence for human colonization of the
clase crystals. Quartz grains from the same two sandy units were also Philippines by the early Middle Pleistocene epoch, and long before
dated using the electron spin resonance (ESR) method18, and resulted in the appearance of modern humans in both the local context and wider
a maximum depositional date of 727 ± 30 ka for unit A, and a minimum Island South East Asia region21. Although the identity of these archaic
depositional date of 701 ± 70 ka for unit G (1σ confidence interval; toolmakers remains unknown, it is likely that they dispersed over at
see Supplementary Information). least one sea barrier to reach Luzon Island22. The most likely points
To directly constrain the age of the rhinoceros skeleton and the cut of origin are Borneo through Palawan to the west, or China through
marks, we applied ESR/uranium-series dating to the enamel of the Taiwan to the north, this latter island was connected to mainland Asia
rhinoceros’s right maxillary third premolar from the unit F bone bed. during periods with low sea levels23. The Middle Pleistocene fauna from
The tooth yielded an age of 709 ± 68 thousand years (1σ confidence the Awidon Mesa Formation contains a wider range of vertebrates than
interval), which is in agreement with the ESR results on the quartz the Pleistocene faunas from two islands to the south of the Philippines
(Fig. 1, Extended Data Fig. 6, Extended Data Table 1, Supplementary that have both yielded evidence of the occupation by premodern
Information and Supplementary Table 1). In addition, a palaeomagnetic humans, Sulawesi9 and Flores26 (Extended Data Fig. 9). Overseas dis-
sample was taken from a laminated silty lens in the lower part of unit G persal throughout Wallacea of land mammals, including hominins,
and was found to have a normal magnetic polarity (see Supplementary could have been primarily, although not exclusively, in a north to south
Information: and Extended Data Fig. 7). The presence in unit F of a direction, following the major surface current flow patterns.
reworked Australasian tektite (see Supplementary Information and Beyond the chronological gap that is yet to be filled, a question clearly
Extended Data Fig. 8) that had formed during a major meteoritic linked to our discovery is the origin of the Callao Cave hominin that
impact just before the onset of the Brunhes Normal polarity epoch has been dated to 66.7 ± 1 ka. This diminutive Callao hominin may
at 781 ka19,20, also provides further support for these closely grouped represent a direct descendent from a Pleistocene migration stock
dating results. These results further suggest that the volcanic plagioclase related to these early Kalinga toolmakers—similar to what happened
crystals from unit G on which the 40Ar/39Ar date was obtained were on Flores Island—or may be derived from a more recent migration
reworked from older volcanoclastic deposits, and therefore provide wave of anatomically modern humans6,21,24,25.

1 0 M A Y 2 0 1 8 | V O L 5 5 7 | N A T U RE | 2 3 5
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 RESEARCH Letter

a b
5.0
0 2.5 5.0
cm
2.5 cm
0
4.0 2.5

mm

mm
0 0

c d e

5.0
f
0

μm
cm

2.5
5.0

5.0 3,000

cm
2.5
0
0 100
1

μm
cm

2.5 0
0 1,000 2,000 3,000
μm

0
0 50 100 150
μm
8.0 2.0
cm
mm

0 0

Fig. 3 | Different types of marks at the surface of the bones. a, Left trampling. d, Right metacarpal IV (II-2014-J1-282) with parallel and
humerus (II-2014-J1-368) found broken into five fragments in the rectilinear anthropogenic cut marks (R) on its medial surface presumably
excavation with an anthropogenic conchoidal percussion mark (P) on its generated during disarticulation. e, Right humerus (II-2014-J1-289) with an
anterior surface most likely produced to get access to the marrow. anthropogenic conchoidal percussion mark (P) similar in size and shape to
b, The sub-complete rib (II-2014-J1-475) has a diagnostic anthropogenic the percussion mark on the left humerus, but located on its posterior surface
cutmark with a V-shaped cross-section (V), hertzian cones (H), and more distally and associated with a small adhered bone flake (F) (see
asymmetrical profile (A) and shoulder effect (S) on its lateral surface page 298 of Fernández-Jalvo and Andrews17). f, Three-dimensional surface
resulting from defleshing. Black stains are also present inside the cutmark, topography of another rib (II-2014-J1-466) showing a linear mark (on the
which resemble the ones observed on the surface of the rib and are the left) with V-shaped cross-section (V) of anthropogenic origin, as well as
result of taphonomic processes that occurred after this cutmark was hertzian cones (H) and a linear mark (on the right) with a base as broad as
made (see page 156 of Fernández-Jalvo and Andrews17). c, Rib fragment the heights of the walls of the grove, commonly attributed to trampling but
(II-2014-J1-403) with a shiny surface on its lateral face resulting from also with assymetrical walls and possible microstriations in the bottom (M)
multiple multidirectional striations, which are presumably caused by of the groove, commonly attributed to anthropogenic marks.

Despite the current evidence, it still seems too farfetched to suggest are available in the online version of the paper at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-
that H. erectus, or another unknown Pleistocene ancestral candidate for 018-0072-8.
the Kalinga toolmakers (for example, Denisovans27), were able to con-
Received: 10 May 2017; Accepted: 14 March 2018;
struct some sort of simple watercraft and deliberately cross sea barriers
Published online 2 May 2018.
to reach these islands28. However, considering evidence of overseas dis-
persal during the Middle Pleistocene stage is increasing in number29,30,
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 Letter RESEARCH

6. Mijares, A. S. et al. New evidence for a 67,000-year-old human presence at 29. Erlandson, J. M. & Fitzpatrick, S. M. Oceans, islands, and coasts: current
Callao Cave, Luzon, Philippines. J. Hum. Evol. 59, 123–132 (2010). perspectives on the role of the sea in human prehistory. J. Island Coast. Archaeol.
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Pleistocene of Flores. Nature 534, 245–248 (2016). as well as G. Concepcion and M. dela Cruz Jr. The Kalinga excavation project was
10. van den Bergh, G. D. et al. Earliest hominin occupation of Sulawesi, Indonesia. funded by the French Department for Foreign Affairs (Project MARCHE, to T.I.),
Nature 529, 208–211 (2016). The National Museum of The Philippines (to C.J.-o. and M.C.R.), The University
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volcaniclastic sedimentation in an interarc basin. Sedimentology 30, la Recherche Scientifique (GDRi PalBiodivASE with Valéry Zeitoun), from
369–392 (1983). Sorbonne Universités (Project MH@SU TAPHO), from the Société des Amis
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Luzon, Philippines. PhD thesis, Iowa State Univ. (1981). from an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future fellowship (FT100100384).
14. Pawlik, A. F. The Paleolithic site of Arubo 1 in Central Luzon, Philippines. Bull. J.d.V. received funding from the Quaternary and Prehistory Erasmus Mundus
Indo-Pacific Prehistory Assoc. 24, 1–10 (2004). Program. Additional funding was provided by the Embassy of France to the
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Áridos 2 (Madrid, Spain). J. Archaeol. Sci. 37, 2469–2476 (2010). Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. We thank S. Hayes for her feedback
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Application to fluvial terraces system of Northern France. Quaternaire 15, other anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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19. Lee, M.-Y., Chen, C.-H., Wei, K.-Y., Iizuka, Y. & Carey, S. First Toba supereruption Author contributions T.I., J.d.V. and A.B. conceived the study with C.J-o. and
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systems and time durations. J. Biogeogr. 27, 1153–1167 (2000). Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests.
24. Détroit, F., Corny, J., Dizon, E. Z. & Mijares, A. S. “Small size” in the
Philippine human fossil record: is it meaningful for a better Additional information
understanding of the evolutionary history of the negritos? Hum. Biol. 85, Extended data is available for this paper at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-
45–66 (2013). 018-0072-8.
25. Sutikna, T. et al. Revised stratigraphy and chronology for Homo floresiensis at Supplementary information is available for this paper at https://doi.
Liang Bua in Indonesia. Nature 532, 366–369 (2016). org/10.1038/s41586-018-0072-8.
26. Brumm, A. et al. Age and context of the oldest known hominin fossils from Reprints and permissions information is available at http://www.nature.com/
Flores. Nature 534, 249–253 (2016). reprints.
27. Cooper, A. & Stringer, C. B. Did the Denisovans cross Wallace’s Line? Science Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to T.I. or
342, 321–323 (2013). M.C.R.
28. Ruxton, G. D. & Wilkinson, D. M. Population trajectories for accidental versus Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
planned colonisation of islands. J. Hum. Evol. 63, 507–511 (2012). claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

1 0 M A Y 2 0 1 8 | V O L 5 5 7 | N A T U RE | 2 3 7
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RESEARCH Letter

Extended Data Figure 1 | Geology and sedimentology of the Kalinga tools lying at the base of unit F is exposed, just above the eastward sloping
Excavation site. a, Detailed stratigraphic drawing of trench H also erosional contact with unit A. d, Detailed view of quadrant NW showing
showing the east wall of the S quadrant of the main excavation. The the position of a flake lying next to the rhinoceros left femur. e, Detail
sedimentary patterns are the same as in Fig. 1. Representative logarithmic of quadrant N showing the piece of waterlogged wood fragment (yellow
grain-size diagrams are shown for samples from each sedimentary unit. outline) recovered near a rhinoceros rib extremity (blue outline). f, Detail
b, Detailed stratigraphic drawing of the main excavation walls. of quadrant NE showing the tektite recovered in unit F along with the
c, Overview towards the northwest of the quadrants N and NW of the faunal and lithic remains.
main excavation in 2015. The concentration of faunal remains and stone

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 Letter RESEARCH

Extended Data Figure 2 | Faunal remains from Kalinga archaeological skeleton. We estimate that about 75% of the skeleton has been recovered.
unit F. a, Drawing showing the preservation of the rhinoceros and position b, Fibula of Varanus salvator. c, Radius of a Cervidae. d, Molar of Cervus
of the taphonomical marks. A total of 97 fragments of ribs of all sizes have cf. mariannus. e, Molar fragment of Stegodon cf. luzonensis.
been recovered and not all of them could be clearly positioned on the

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RESEARCH Letter

Extended Data Figure 3 | Digital elevation model of the main Kalinga dimensional coordinates recorded in the main excavation with a total
excavation. The model shows the contact surface topography between station on the erosional surface that cuts down into unit A. This surface of
unit A and unit F and the vertical projections (black squares) of the contact corresponds to an erosional channel cutting down into the sandy
archaeological materials (coloured points) on this surface. The model unit A. All the material has been recovered lying across the base of the
was produced by interpolation through a kriging method from 37 three- clay-rich unit F along this channel, between 0.7 m and 1.3 m deep.

© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. All rights reserved.
 Letter RESEARCH

Extended Data Figure 4 | X-ray diffraction pattern of powdered unit type of clay, which can be produced by hydrothermal alteration. Similarly,
F clays. Quartz corresponds to the bipyramidal quartz crystals, some of the smectite mineral saponite results from alteration of volcanic glass. The
which are visible to the naked eye. Bipyramidal quartz, albite, hornblende, mineral composition of unit F supports the interpretation as a mudflow set
nontronite and saponite all have a volcanic origin. Albite is a plagioclase in a volcanic environment. CPS, counts per second; Cu K-α corresponds
feldspar frequent in pegmatites. Hornblende is a common silicate mineral to the wavelength.
in igneous and metamorphic rocks. Nontronite is an iron-rich smectite

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RESEARCH Letter

Extended Data Figure 5 | 40Ar/39Ar fusion ages of single potassium diagrams (a) are correlated to the related inverse isochrones (b). Individual
plagioclase crystals for samples from unit A and unit G. a, b, Probability ages in a are ±1σ.

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 Letter RESEARCH

Extended Data Figure 6 | Measurements of dose rates and calculation of function (Origin Microcal software) following the recommendations of
equivalent dose to compute the ESR ages from quartz crystals and tooth Duval and Grün31 (De < 500 Gy, therefore Dmax < 5,000 Gy for this sample).
enamel. a, Al and Ti centre ESR spectra of natural and bleached aliquots c–f, ESR dose–response curves, for the aluminium (Al) and titanium–
for unit A quartz showing that the Al signal is not completely reset, lithium (Ti-Li) centres of layers G1 and A4. b–f, The vertical bars indicate
although it is not measurable because it is extremely weak and concealed the standard deviation around the mean for each measurement. The
by noise. b, ESR dose–response curve obtained for the rhinoceros tooth red curve is the dose–response curve. The blue curves indicate the 95%
(archaeological number: II-2014-J1-095; sample code: CGY1501). The confidence interval of the dose–response curve.
equivalent dose (De) was extrapolated using a single saturating exponential

31. Duval, M. & Grün, R. Are published ESR dose assessments on fossil tooth
enamel reliable? Quat. Geochronol. 31, 19–27 (2016).

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RESEARCH Letter

Extended Data Figure 7 | Progressive demagnetization curves, a–e, Specimens were treated by alternating field demagnetization.
equal area projection stereoplots and Zijderveld diagrams for the f, Specimen HT-1E was treated by thermal demagnetization.
six analysed specimens from Layer G2. a–f, Each panel shows the g, h, Equal area projections of the mean chemical remanent magnetization
progressive demagnetization curves (bottom left), equal area projection (ChRM) directions of all analysed specimens before (g) and after (h)
stereoplots (top left) and Zijderveld diagrams (right). Open circles in demagnetization. Solid squares represent the upper hemisphere. The black
the Zijderveld diagrams represent the inclination whereas closed circles cross indicates the mean ChRM direction of the six specimens combined,
represent declination. Open and closed circles in the equal area projection surrounded by the α95 circle. The red cross represents the present-day
(stereoplot) represent the upper and lower hemisphere, respectively. magnetic direction.

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 Letter RESEARCH

Extended Data Figure 8 | Analysis of the Kalinga tektite recovered from glass composition through µXRF to an australasite tektite from China
the archaeological layer unit F. a, Picture of the tektite. b, Micro-X-ray measured in the same conditions (red squares) and an average australasite
fluorescence (µXRF) spectra (un-indexed peaks correspond to the Rh composition (blue diamonds)32.
source) showing its composition. c, Comparison of the Kalinga tektite

32. Koeberl, C. The geochemistry of tektites: an overview. Tectonophysics 171,

405–422 (1990).

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 RESEARCH Letter

Extended Data Figure 9 | Fauna diversity of the Kalinga site compared Java Island33, the Mata Menge Fauna of Flores Island, which includes
to contemporaneous faunas from other islands in the region. the putative ancestor of H. floresiensis34, and the Walanae Fauna on the
Contemporaneous to those faunas are ‘classic’ H. erectus faunas on southwestern branch of Sulawesi35,36.

33. De Vos, J., Sartono, S., Hardja-Sasmita, S. & Sondar, P.-Y. The fauna from Trinil, 35. van den Bergh, G. D., de Vos, J. & Sondaar, P. Y. The Late Quaternary
type locality of Homo erectus a reinterpretation. Geologie Mijnbouw 61, palaeogeography of mammal evolution in the Indonesian Archipelago.
207–211 (1982). Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 171, 385–408 (2001).
34. van den Bergh, G. D. et al. Homo floresiensis-like fossils from the early Middle 36. Downing, K. F., Musser, G. G. & Park, L. E. in Advances in Vertebrate Paleontology
Pleistocene of Flores. Nature 534, 245–248 (2016). and Geochronology Vol. 14 (eds Tomida, Y. et al.) 105–121 (National Science
Museum Monographs, Tokyo, 1998).

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 Letter RESEARCH

Extended Data Table 1 | ESR/U-series results for the rhinoceros tooth

a, U-series data for the tooth CGY1501. b, ESR/U-series data and age. Eventual radium and radon losses from the dental tissues were estimated from cross-checked γ and α data37. Dose conversion
factors were used according to previously published data38. Water contents of 0 ± 0%, 7 ± 5% and 10 ± 5% were used for enamel (fixed), dentine (fixed) and sediments (difference in mass between the
natural sample and the same sample dried for a week in an oven at 50 °C), respectively.
1
A k-value of 0.13 ± 0.02 was used following a previously published study38.
2
The enamel thickness removed during the preparation process was taken into account in the β contribution calculation39. The following values were used for the age calculation: 1,505 ± 376 µm,
351 ± 88 µm and 45 ± 12 µm for the initial thickness, thickness after preparation on the dentine side and on the sediment side, respectively.
3
The cosmic dose was estimated based on the depth using Prescott and Hutton’s formulae40. Because we have at present no means to know precisely when the erosion took place and since when the
archaeological material became buried under less than 7 m of sediment, a depth of 2.75 m was used for the cosmic dose rate estimation as an intermediate value between the 7 m of sediments that
once covered the archaeological layer and the present 70 cm to 1.20 m depth at which the archaeological material was recovered, and as an average between the once full thickness of the archaeolog-
ical layer and the present thickness from which the archaeological material was recovered. A cosmic dose estimated from a depth of 7 m would result in a 10% older age for unit F and a cosmic dose
estimated from a depth of 1 m would result in a 7% younger age for unit F.
4
Uncertainties on the ESR/U-series ages were calculated using Monte Carlo approach41.

37. Bahain, J.-J., Yokoyama, Y., Falguères, C. & Sarcia, M. N. ESR dating of tooth 40. Prescott, J. R. & Hutton, J. T. Cosmic ray contributions to dose rates for
enamel: a comparison with K–Ar dating. Quat. Sci. Rev. 11, 245–250 (1992). luminescence and ESR dating: large depths and long-term time. Radiat. Meas.
38. Grün, R. & Katzenberger-Apel, O. An alpha irradiator for ESR dating. Anc. TL 12, 23, 497–500 (1994).
35–38 (1994). 41. Shao, Q., Bahain, J.-J., Dolo, J.-M., Falguères, C. Monte Carlo approach to
39. Brennan, B. J., Rink, W. J., McGuirl, E. L., Schwarcz, H. P. & Prestwich, W. V. Beta calculate US-ESR ages and their uncertainties. Quat. Geochronol. 22, 99–106
doses in tooth enamel by “one-group” theory and the ROSY ESR dating (2014).
software. Radiat. Meas. 27, 307–314 (1997).

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 nature research | life sciences reporting summary
Corresponding author(s): Thomas INGICCO
Initial submission Revised version Final submission

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