| Abstract: |
Relations between humans and the rain forest in Java Island began during the Lower Pleistocene, but clear evidence for anthropic impact and clearance of the forest does not occur until late in the Holocene, after the rise of the ancient kingdoms on Java at the end of 1st millennium A.D. The history of landscape change in Java over the last 2.5 million years appears highly complex and linked to the repetitive expansion and fragmentation of the rain forest over this time. These processes are now much better understood, thanks to the range of palaeoenvironmental studies undertaken at various altitudes and in locations that show the dynamics of rain forest in response to variations in climatic and regional environmental change. The extent of rain forest throughout the Holocene appears to have been quite sensitive to small perturbations, making it somewhat difficult to discriminate (especially for relatively ancient Holocene forest recessions) between a climatic cause and one of anthropic origin. Clear evidence of intensive human impact on rain forest is observed late, c. 1500 years ago, a pattern that is repeated in other parts of Island Southeast Asia. This paper will focus on the history of the landscape changes in Java during the Quaternary, with special reference to the dynamics of rain forest structure and composition, largely drawn from available pollen analyses. Subsequently, the paleoenvironmental, palaeoanthropological, and archaeological records are considered to investigate the adaptive relationships between human groups and the forest through time.
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