Akar Nusa / Shelves / Deep time
Deep time
The first roads out of Africa, and the oldest family lines still alive in us.

WHERE THE STORIES ON THIS SHELF HAPPENED. SHAPES ARE SCHEMATIC.
Stories on this shelf
12 written, 2 coming soon
Out of Africa: how every Malaysian line began
Every mother line and father line in Malaysia traces back to a small group in Africa.
Deep time · 3 min readThe southern route: walking the coast to Southeast Asia
A fast coastal journey may have brought the first people to our shores.
Deep time · 3 min readSundaland: the lost land under the sea
Malaysia was once the hilltop of a great plain joined to Sumatra, Java and Borneo.
Deep time · 3 min readNiah Cave: a human skull 40,000 years old
The Deep Skull from Sarawak is among the oldest modern humans in Southeast Asia.
Deep time · 3 min readLenggong Valley: where Perak Man was found
A man buried about 11,000 years ago in Perak, one of the oldest complete skeletons in the region.
Deep time · 3 min readAncient DNA from Southeast Asia: what it has told us
Old bones now give DNA, and they show waves of newcomers, not one story.
Deep time · 3 min readWhen the sea rose: the drowning of Sundaland
Rising seas pushed families inland and onto boats, over many generations.
Deep time · 3 min readNiah's painted caves and burial ground
The same caves hold boat coffins and cave paintings, telling later stories.
Deep time · 3 min readLenggong's stone tools, 1.83 million years old
A volcanic eruption sealed tools in Bukit Jawa, older than any human in Malaysia.
Deep time · 3 min readGua Cha: a rockshelter with 12,000 years of burials
A Kelantan cave shows hunters, then farmers, then metal users in one place.
Deep time · 3 min readThe Hoabinhian: tool makers of the old rainforest
A pebble-tool way of life that spread from Vietnam to Sumatra.
Deep time · 3 min readNeanderthal and Denisovan traces in Southeast Asians
Small old ancestry from other human groups lives in many of us, and more in some.
Perak Woman and the Lenggong burials
Other skeletons show who lived beside Perak Man and how they were buried.
Tambun and Gua Kelawar: early cave paintings of Perak
Red painted walls in Ipoh's hills speak from the Stone Age.
8 family lines linked to this shelf
A line being common in a place does not mean everyone there carries it, and it never settles who anyone is.




