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

Abstract

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.

Human foraging responses to climate change; Here Sorot Entapa rockshelter on Kisar Island

“…The inhabitants of HSE could have moved to other locations on Kisar or neighbouring islands such as Timor, Wetar, Romang, or Leti in order to have access to more reliable water and food resources. The maintenance of the relationship between Kisar and Timor can be found in the rock art, oral history, language, and place names that are used together (O'Connor and Ono 2013;O'Connor et al 2018). Considering their developed seafaring culture (O'Connor, Ono, and Clarkson 2011) and indisputable evidence of the maritime transportation of obsidian between islands in the Lesser Sunda found by Reepmeyer et al (2016Reepmeyer et al ( , 2019, early and continuous cultural linkages between the two islands have been demonstrated.…”

“…Evidence of the high archaeological potential on Kisar can be seen from the discovery of numerous caves and rockshelters containing rock art (O'Connor et al 2018) and also from the results of the small excavations conducted at here sorot entApA (hse) rocKshelter HSE consists of a rockshelter in a limestone terrace with a smaller cave chamber at the back (Figure 2). The shelter lies at a height of about 24 m above present mean sea level and is located approximately 80 m from the modern shoreline (O'Connor et al 2019).…”

“…Archaeological records on smaller islands including Roti, Gebe, Talaud, and Alor indicate heavy dependence on marine resources in the face of their depauperate terrestrial faunas. Hence Kisar, the smallest (approximately 80 km2) Wallacean island with a known archaeological record (O'Connor et al 2019(O'Connor et al , 2018, is the ideal location for the study of human adaptation to insular environments.…”

Black drawings at the cave site of Gua Pondoa, Southeast Sulawesi: The motifs and a comparison with pigment art elsewhere in Sulawesi and the broader Western Pacific region

“…As noted, the last of these possibilities may be of most relevance to Gua Pondoa. Although it is possible that some of these scenes were painted in the Neolithic, O'Connor et al (2015O'Connor et al ( , 2018 have recently noted the similarity of some of the anthropomorphs shown in the Kisar and Timor Leste panels to scenes figured on Dong Son drums. Thus, the production of rock art may be referencing images seen on other types of material culture.…”

Sharing Knowledge: Archaeology and Education in the Maluku, Indonesia

“…A region with distinctive characteristics. Similarly, the islands' mound between Asia and Australia have a key role in explaining the complex process of human migration in the past (McKinnon, 1988;O'Connor et al, 2005;2018;Ririmasse, 2010: 71-89;2011: 23-38).…”