Pleistocene rainforests: barriers or attractive environments for early human foragers?

In the 1980s, anthropologists argued that tropical rainforests were unattractive environments for long-term human navigation, subsistence and occupation. Meanwhile, archaeologists have traditionally held that Homo sapiens only intensively colonized rainforests during the Holocene, from c. 11 thousand years ago (ka). New discoveries and re-appraisal of Pleistocene (c. 200–12 ka) archaeological sites in Africa, Southeast Asia, Melanesia, and Sri Lanka, have, however, indicated the possibility for human occupation of rainforests from c. 45 ka and, more controversially, c. 200 ka. We critically review the archaeological evidence for Pleistocene human rainforest occupation from several regions. We argue that clear evidence exists for human adaptation to rainforest ecologies from c. 45 ka, with tantalizing hints of even earlier colonization. More research, however, is needed in order to understand the dynamism and diversity of palaeoecologies commonly classified as ‘rainforest’, as well as the regional extent, nature, and longevity of early human rainforest habitations.