Faces in the Stone: Further Finds of Anthropomorphic Engravings Suggest a Discrete Artistic Tradition Flourished in Timor-Leste in the Terminal Pleistocene

Sue O'Connor,Ceri Shipton,Nuno Vasco Oliveira,Shimona Kealy,Christopher D Standish,Marcos García-Diez

doi:10.1017/s0959774320000323

Abstract

Engraving sites are rare in mainland and Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) where painted art dominates the prehistoric artistic record. Here we report two new engraving sites from the Tutuala region of Timor-Leste comprising mostly humanoid forms carved into speleothem columns in rock-shelters. Engraved face motifs have previously been reported from Lene Hara Cave in this same region, and one was dated to the Pleistocene–Holocene transition using the Uranium–Thorium method. We discuss the engravings in relation to changes in technology and material culture that took place in the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene archaeological records in this region of Timor as well as neighbouring islands. We suggest that the engravings may have been produced as markers of territorial and social identity within the context of population expansion and greater inter-group contacts at this time.

Highlights

Rock art is one of the principal means through which prehistoric peoples expressed social and territorial identities (e.g. David & Wilson 2002), and as such has been viewed as a key indicator of cultural ‘efflorescence’ at times of heightened social pressures (David & Lourandos 1998)
In this paper we describe further examples of these speleothem faces, suggesting they constitute part of a wider tradition. We explore how this relates to a range of other changes that are apparent in the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene of the region, including bead and burial traditions
Engraving sites are rare in mainland and Island Southeast Asia (ISEA), but common to the east in Near and Remote Oceania, while painted art is more common in mainland New Guinea and islands to the west

Summary

Introduction

Rock art is one of the principal means through which prehistoric peoples expressed social and territorial identities (e.g. David & Wilson 2002), and as such has been viewed as a key indicator of cultural ‘efflorescence’ at times of heightened social pressures (David & Lourandos 1998). The body is shown beginning immediately below the head but no further carved features are evident, it is possible that the artist has used the carbonate flows within and below the body to represent arms and legs On this figure the eyes are represented by two circles with the one on the viewer’s left best preserved. The Timor-Leste humanoids are all distinctly different from each other, in terms of face shape and features Some, such as Lene Hara Petroglyph group A, are formed from inverted triangles, wide and flat at the top and pointed at the chin (Fig. 2A; O’Connor et al 2010a). Sex is not indicated for the majority of the Timor-Leste humanoids, but we suggest that Kiiru B is likely to represent a female

Discussion

Conclusion