Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T23:34:06.696Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Faces of the ancestors revealed: discovery and dating of a Pleistocene-age petroglyph in Lene Hara Cave, East Timor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Sue O'Connor ,
Ken Aplin ,
Emma St Pierre  and
Yue-xing Feng
Sue O'Connor
Affiliation:
Archaeology and Natural History, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia (Email: [email protected])
Ken Aplin
Affiliation:
Australian National Wildlife Collection, CSIRO Division of Sustainable Ecosystems, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
Emma St Pierre
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australi
Yue-xing Feng
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australi
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A petroglyph showing a human face found in East Timor is dated to the late Pleistocene. It recalls ancient Australian forms and raises the possibility of connecting early cave art with the better known painted figures of Lapita/Austronesian art ten millennia later. This new discovery at a known cave shows what precious evidence still lies in store even in well-trodden places.

Keywords

Southeast AsiaEast Timorrock artpigmentpetroglyphAustronesiansLapitahuman facePleistocene art
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 84 , Issue 325 , September 2010 , pp. 649 - 665
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aubert, M., O'Connor, S., Mcculloch, M., Mortimer, G., Watchman, A. & Richerlafléche, M.. 2007. Uranium-Series dating rock art in East Timor. Journal of Archaeological Science 34: 991–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ballard, C. 1992. Painted rock art sites in western Melanesia: locational evidence for an ‘Austronesian’ tradition, in McDonald, J. & Haskovec, I. (ed.) State of the art: regional rock art studies in Australia and Melanesia (Occasional AURA Publication 6): 94–106. Melbourne: Australian Rock Art Research Association.Google Scholar
Barrkman, J. 2009. Husi Bei ala Timor siri nia liman from the hands of our ancestors: the art and craft of Timor-Leste. Darwin: Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory.Google Scholar
Chazine, J.-M. 2005. Rock art, burials, and habitations: caves in East Kalimantan. Asian Perspectives 44(1): 219–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L., Hoff, J., Gallup, C.D., Richards, D.A. & Asmerom, Y.. 2000. The half-lives of uranium-234 and thorium-230. Chemical Geology 169(1-2): 17–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Almeida, A. 1967. A contribution to the study of rock paintings in Portuguese Timor, in Solheim, W.G. II (ed.) Archaeology at the eleventh Pacific science congress: papers presented at the XI Pacific science congress, Tokyo, August-September 1966 (Asian and Pacific Archaeology Series 1): 69–76. Honolulu (HI): Social Science Research Institute, University of Hawai'i.Google Scholar
De Almeida, A. & Zbyszewski, G.. 1967. A contribution to the study of the prehistory of Portuguese Timor - lithic industries, in Solheim, W.G. II (ed.) Archaeology at the eleventh Pacific science congress: papers presented at the XI Pacific science congress, Tokyo, August-September 1966 (Asian and Pacific Archaeology Series 1): 55–67. Honolulu (HI): Social Science Research Institute, University of Hawai'i.Google Scholar
Edwards, R.L., Chen, J.H. & Wasserburg, G.J.. 1987. 238U-234U-230Th-232Th systematics and the precise measurement of time over the past 500 000 years. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 81: 175–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glover, I. 1972. Excavations in Timor. Unpublished PhD dissertation, The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Lape, P.V., O'connor, S. & Burningham, N.. 2007. Rock art: a potential source of information about past maritime technology in the Southeast Asia-Pacific region. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 36(2): 238–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, G. & Stasack, E.. 1999. Spirit of place petroglyphs of Hawai'i. Los Osos (CA): Bearsville & Cloud Mountain Presses.Google Scholar
Ludwig, K.R. 2008. User's manual for Isoplot 3.6: a geochronological toolkit for Microsoft Excel (Berkeley Geochronology Center Special Publication 4). Berkeley (CA): Berkeley Geochronology Center.Google Scholar
Ludwig, K.R., Simmons, K.R., Szabo, B.J., Winograd, I.J., Landwehr, J.M., Riggs, A.C. & Hoffman, R.J.. 1992. Mass-Spectrometric 230Th-234U-238U dating of the Devils Hole calcite vein. Science 258: 284–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mcdonald, J. 2005. Archaic faces to headdresses: the changing role of rock art across the arid zone, in Veth, P., Smith, M. & Hiscock, P. (ed.) Desert peoples: archaeological perspectives: 116–41. Malden (MA); Oxford: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'connor, S. 2003. Report of nine new painted rock art sites in East Timor in the context of the western Pacific region. Asian Perspectives 42(1): 96–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'connor, S. & Aplin, K.P.. 2007. A matter of balance: an overview of Pleistocene occupation history and the impact of the Last Glacial Phase in East Timor and the Aru Islands, eastern Indonesia. Archaeology in Oceania 42(3): 82–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'connor, S. & Bulbeck, D.. In press. Homo sapiens societies in Indonesia and Southeastern Asia, in Cummings, V., Jordan, P. & Zvelebil, M. (ed.) The Oxford handbook of the archaeology and anthropology of hunter-gatherers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
O'connor, S. & Oliveira, N.V.. 2007. Inter and intra regional variation in the Austronesian painting tradition: a view from East Timor. Asian Perspectives 46(2): 389–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'connor, S. & Veth, P.. 2005. Early Holocene shell fish hooks from Lene Hara Cave, East Timor establish complex fishing technology was in use in Island Southeast Asia five thousand years before Austronesian settlement. Antiquity 79: 249–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'connor, S., spriggs, M. & Veth, P.. 2002. Excavation at Lene Hara establishes occupation in East Timor 30 000-35 000 years ago. Antiquity 76: 45–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plagnes, V., Causse, C., Fontugnew, M., Valladas, H., chazine, J.-M. & fage, L.-H.. 2003. Cross dating (Th/U-14C) of calcite covering prehistoric paintings in Borneo. Quaternary Research 60: 172–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Röder, J. 1956. The rockpaintings of the Mac Cluer Bay. Antiquity and Survival 1: 387–400.Google Scholar
Röder, J. 1959. Felsbilder und Vorgeschichte des Maccluer-Golfes, West-Neuguinea, in Jensen, A.E. & Niggemeyer, H. (ed.) Ergebnisse der Frobenius-Expedition, 1937–38, in die Molukken und nach Holländisch Neu-Guinea, Volume 4. Darmstadt: L. C. Wittich.Google Scholar
Roe, D. 1992. Rock art of north-west Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, in McDonald, J. & Haskovec, I. (ed.) State of the art: regional rock art studies in Australia and Melanesia (Occasional AURA Publication: 6): 107–127. Melbourne: Australian Rock Art Research Association.Google Scholar
Rosenfeld, A. 1988. Rock art in western Oceania. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 8: 119–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Specht, J. 1979. Rock art in the western Pacific, in Mead, S.M. (ed.) Exploring the visual art of Oceania: Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia: 58–82. Honolulu (HI): University Press of Hawai'i.Google Scholar
St Pierre, E., Zhao, J.-X. & Reed, E.. 2009. Expanding the utility of Uranium-series dating of speleothems for archaeological and palaeontological applications. Journal of Archaeological Science 36: 1416–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, F.E. 1931. Papuan petroglyphs. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 61: 121–55.Google Scholar
Wilson, M. 2002. Picturing Pacific prehistory: the rock art of Vanuatu in a western Pacific context. Unpublished PhD dissertation, The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Wilson, M., Spriggs, M. & Lawson, E.. 2001. Dating the rock art of Vanuatu: AMS radiocarbon determinations from abandoned mud-wasp nests and charcoal pigment found in superimposition. Rock Art Research 18: 24–32.Google Scholar
Zhao, J.-X., Hu, K., Collerson, K.D. & Xu, H.-K.. 2001. Thermal ionization mass spectrometry U-series dating of hominid site near Nanjing, China. Geology 29(1): 27–30.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar