A reassessment of the early archaeological record at Leang Burung 2, a Late Pleistocene rock-shelter site on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi

Abstract

This paper presents a reassessment of the archaeological record at Leang Burung 2, a key early human occupation site in the Late Pleistocene of Southeast Asia. Excavated originally by Ian Glover in 1975, this limestone rock-shelter in the Maros karsts of Sulawesi, Indonesia, has long held significance in our understanding of early human dispersals into ‘Wallacea’, the vast zone of oceanic islands between continental Asia and Australia. We present new stratigraphic information and dating evidence from Leang Burung 2 collected during the course of our excavations at this site in 2007 and 2011–13. Our findings suggest that the classic Late Pleistocene modern human occupation sequence identified previously at Leang Burung 2, and proposed to span around 31,000 to 19,000 conventional 14C years BP (~35–24 ka cal BP), may actually represent an amalgam of reworked archaeological materials. Sources for cultural materials of mixed ages comprise breccias from the rear wall of the rock-shelter–remnants of older, eroded deposits dated to 35–23 ka cal BP–and cultural remains of early Holocene antiquity. Below the upper levels affected by the mass loss of Late Pleistocene deposits, our deep-trench excavations uncovered evidence for an earlier hominin presence at the site. These findings include fossils of now-extinct proboscideans and other ‘megafauna’ in stratified context, as well as a cobble-based stone artifact technology comparable to that produced by late Middle Pleistocene hominins elsewhere on Sulawesi.

Patterned and plain baked clay from pre-pottery contexts in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia

“…Suryatman et al 2017;Brumm et al 2018;Suryatman et al 2019). Our recovery of nearly 4kg of baked-clay fragments from Gua Talimbue and Gua Sambagowala in Southeast Sulawesi was therefore unexpected in the context of Sulawesi and wider Island Southeast Asian prehistory.…”

Island Migration, Resource Use, and Lithic Technology by Anatomically Modern Humans in Wallacea

“…In terms of temporal change of resource use in Wallacea during the late Pleistocene, the Topogaro case indicates the possible intensive hunting of larger mammal species such as Anoa by around 29 ka. Given the rock paintings of Anoa hunting on the cave dated to 44 ka [4] and other archeological evidences of Anoa bones from the late Pleistocene sites in the Maros district, South Sulawesi also supports such a possibility [25]. Evidence for the active use of Anoa, Babirusa and Celebes warty pigs (Sus celebensis) was also found at Leang Burung 2 [25,66,67] in South Sulawesi.…”

“…Given the rock paintings of Anoa hunting on the cave dated to 44 ka [4] and other archeological evidences of Anoa bones from the late Pleistocene sites in the Maros district, South Sulawesi also supports such a possibility [25]. Evidence for the active use of Anoa, Babirusa and Celebes warty pigs (Sus celebensis) was also found at Leang Burung 2 [25,66,67] in South Sulawesi. In Topogaro, Sus species increase in the middle layers possibly around 16 ka, together with the appearance of retouched lithic tools.…”

“…Along the northern routes, on the other hand, excavations have been conducted in Talaud Islands, Sulawesi, and Northern Maluku Islands. Among them the oldest evidence for presence of AMH comes from South Sulawesi, from rock paintings at some cave sites and direct U-series dates as old as 43 ka [4,24], with the earliest 14C dates in South Sulawesi dated to 36 ka [25]. Other sites older than 30 ka along the northern routes are Golo Cave in Gebe Island (Figure 1) dated to c. 36 ka [26,27], Leang Sarru in the Talaud Islands (Figures 1 and 2) dated to 35 ka [28][29][30][31][32], and Bubog 1 in Mindoro Island (Figure 1) dated to >35 ka [9,33].…”

A different paradigm for the initial colonisation of Sahul

“…Here we note but pass by the tantalising possibility that the re‐excavation of Leang Burung 2 on Sulawesi (Brumm et al . ) and the on‐going excavation at the less‐disturbed and nearby Leang Bulu Bettue (Brumm et al . ) might provide such evidence, given that deep‐trench excavations at neither of these sites have reached bedrock below cultural deposits spanning 50 to 40 ka; see also the continuing work at Liang Bua on Flores (Sutikna et al .…”