Insights into the Prehistory of Modern Humans from Ancient Genomes in Southeast Asia and the East Asian Coastal Regions

KANZAWA-KIRIYAMA Hideaki1*, Timothy Adrian Anak Joseph Jinam2, KAKUDA Tsuneo3, MATSUMURA Hirofumi4, and SHINODA Ken-ichi1

Our research group has been decoding the genomes of ancient human remains excavated from sites along the East Asian coast and the islands of Southeast Asia, analysing the processes of human population dispersal to these regions and the formation of local populations. In this presentation, we will provide an overview of the results of our previous research and report on the findings of our genomic analyses of the human remains under study. Analysis of ancient genomes from hunter-gatherers in the Japanese archipelago has revealed that the archipelago served as a crossroads for the dispersal of human populations from both the north and south. Furthermore, ancient genome analyses of individuals from the Neolithic to the Metal Period in Indonesia have revealed regional variations in admixture between hunter-gatherers and farmers in Southeast Asia, as well as the fact that little to no admixture occurred during the Austronesian expansion from Taiwan.