posted
Right now, I'm living in Hong Kong as an American expat, and while this part of the world is famous mainly as a modern capitalist utopia, there is evidence that the area was inhabited since prehistoric times:
quote:The evidence of Palaeolithic settlement in Hong Kong was found in Wong Tei Tung near Sham Chung, beside Three Fathoms Cove of Sai Kung Peninsula. There were 6000 artefacts found a slope in the area and jointly confirmed by the Hong Kong Archaeological Society and Centre for Lingnan Archaeology of Zhongshan University. [1] It is believed that the Three Fathom Cove was a river valley during that period and ancient people collected stone tools from the lithic manufacturing site in Wong Tei Tung to the settlement in near Tolo Harbour and Mirs Bay.
What I want to know is, what did these people look like in life? Hong Kong is ethnically dominated by Han Chinese now, but since it lies in the subtropics (the natural vegetation looks almost jungle-like), I'm imagining these prehistoric Hong Kong people as looking either like Papuans (black Asians) or Austronesians (like Polynesians or Filipinos). Sadly, I haven't heard of any skeletons being uncovered, just artifacts.
Posts: 7083 | From: Fallbrook, CA | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
Good question. However, keep in mind that austronesian is a language group and that modern Filipinos and Polynesians are mixed with recent migrants from Asia and China, which does not make them a good example of what the populations in these regions looked like 2000 years ago.
Posts: 8897 | Registered: May 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Doug M: Good question. However, keep in mind that austronesian is a language group and that modern Filipinos and Polynesians are mixed with recent migrants from Asia and China, which does not make them a good example of what the populations in these regions looked like 2000 years ago.
You are probably correct, but what I meant when I said that these prehistoric Hong Kongers may have looked like "Austronesians", I meant to convey the image of brown-skinned, straight-haired peoples such as those that predominate in Austronesian-speaking areas.
Posts: 7083 | From: Fallbrook, CA | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
^ I don't know much about paleolithic Hong Kong as I am with mainland China from the Neolithic but since it is during the paleolthic and Hong Kong is in the south, I would not be surprised that black people were aboriginal to the area. Though I don't know if you could attribute any language let alone Austronesian to any people of that remote time period. Though Doug is correct, again I must point out that Polynesians are far more mixed with aboriginal lineages than Filippinos.
Posts: 26286 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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