Island Southeast Asia: Rock Art

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Jean-Michel Chazine
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Island Southeast Asia

The global implications of the early surviving rock art of greater Southeast Asia

Antiquity ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 88 (342) ◽  
pp. 1050-1064 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul S.C. Taçon ◽  
Noel Hidalgo Tan ◽  
Sue O’Connor ◽  
Ji Xueping ◽  
Li Gang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Similar Form ◽  
Island Southeast Asia ◽  
The Difference

The rock art of Southeast Asia has been less thoroughly studied than that of Europe or Australia, and it has generally been considered to be more recent in origin. New dating evidence from Mainland and Island Southeast Asia, however, demonstrates that the earliest motifs (hand stencils and naturalistic animals) are of late Pleistocene age and as early as those of Europe. The similar form of the earliest painted motifs in Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia suggests that they are the product of a shared underlying behaviour, but the difference in context (rockshelters) indicates that experiences in deep caves cannot have been their inspiration.

Ideology, Ritual Performance and Its Manifestations in the Rock Art of Timor-Leste and Kisar Island, Island Southeast Asia

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue O'Connor ◽  
Mahirta ◽  
Daud Tanudirjo ◽  
Marlon Ririmasse ◽  
Muhammad Husni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Symbolic System ◽  
Ritual Performance ◽  
Design Elements ◽  
Island Southeast Asia ◽  
Timor Leste ◽  
Neighbouring Island ◽  
Metal Age ◽  
The Western Pacific

Painted rock art occurs throughout the islands of the Western Pacific and has previously been argued to have motif and design elements in common, indicating that it was created within the context of a shared symbolic system. Here we report five new painted rock-art sites from Kisar Island in eastern Indonesia and investigate the commonalities between this art and the painted art corpus in Timor-Leste, the independent nation that forms the eastern part of the neighbouring island of Timor. We examine the motifs in the Kisar art and suggest that, rather than being Neolithic in age, some of the figurative motifs more likely have a Metal Age origin, which in this region places them within the last 2500 years.

scholarly journals Oldest cave art found in Sulawesi

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. eabd4648
Author(s):  
Adam Brumm ◽  
Adhi Agus Oktaviana ◽  
Basran Burhan ◽  
Budianto Hakim ◽  
Rustan Lebe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rock Art ◽  
Karst Area ◽  
Uranium Series ◽  
Island Southeast Asia ◽  
South Sulawesi ◽  
Figurative Painting ◽  
Uranium Series Dating ◽  
Cave Paintings ◽  
Minimum Age ◽  
Cave Art

Indonesia harbors some of the oldest known surviving cave art. Previously, the earliest dated rock art from this region was a figurative painting of a Sulawesi warty pig (Sus celebensis). This image from Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4 in the limestone karsts of Maros-Pangkep, South Sulawesi, was created at least 43,900 years ago (43.9 ka) based on Uranium-series dating. Here, we report the Uranium-series dating of two figurative cave paintings of Sulawesi warty pigs recently discovered in the same karst area. The oldest, with a minimum age of 45.5 ka, is from Leang Tedongnge. The second image, from Leang Balangajia 1, dates to at least 32 ka. To our knowledge, the animal painting from Leang Tedongnge is the earliest known representational work of art in the world. There is no reason to suppose, however, that this early rock art is a unique example in Island Southeast Asia or the wider region.

The dating of the Island Southeast Asian Neolithic: an attempt at chronometric hygiene and linguistic correlation

Antiquity ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 63 (240) ◽  
pp. 587-613 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Spriggs
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Agricultural Crops ◽  
Agricultural Economy ◽  
Island Southeast Asia

As with conventional definitions of the Neolithic anywhere, the concept in this region relies on there being an agricultural economy, the traces of which are largely indirect. These traces are artefacts interpreted as being linked to agriculture, rather than direct finds of agricultural crops, which are rare in Island Southeast Asia. This definition by artefacts is inevitably polythetic, particularly because many of the sites which have been investigated are hardly comparable. We can expect quite different assemblages from open village sites as opposed to special use sites such as burial caves, or frequentation caves that are used occasionally either by agriculturalists while hunting or by gatherer-hunter groups in some form of interaction with near-by agricultural populations. And rarely is a full range of these different classes of sites available in any one area.

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