Paul C.H. Albers

Paul C.H. Albers has done extensive research in the Dubois archives, including his book Through Eugène Dubois’ Eyes, Stills of a Turbulent Life (Brill, 2010), and participated in archaeological and palaeontological excavations in the Philippines and Indonesia. His book disclosing over 2,000 letters of The correspondence of Eugène Dubois (1888–1900) is currently in press.

orcid https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5896-1021

Quaternary Palaeontology and Archaeology of Sumatra »

Publication date: April 2024
“The Indonesian island of Sumatra is part of a chain of islands making up Sunda and the Malay Archipelago. Sumatra is one of the largest islands in the world, housing unique and globally important tropical rainforests, a diverse array of rare plants and magnificent animals, and a population of 60 million who speak a range of Austronesian languages. As beautifully exemplified in this volume, Sumatra is a place which preserves a distinct and long-term human history, studies of which began in earnest with Eugene Dubois’s explorations in the 1880s to find our ancestral ‘missing link’. Archaeological investigation of megaliths and historic empires carry on to this day. A range of topics are explored here, including palaeontological study of fossil mammals and their environments, the routes that Homo erectus took during their wanderings across Indonesia, and the growth and development of societies and empires in more recent periods. This exemplary volume presents a revised view of the history of palaeontological and archaeological research as well as new ground-breaking field research, laying the foundation for future research on the biological and cultural evolution of one of the most majestic islands of the world.” ­— Professor Michael Petraglia, Director of the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University