Lightning teeth and<i>Ponari sweat</i>: Folk theories and magical uses of prehistoric stone axes (and adzes) in Island Southeast Asia and the origin of thunderstone beliefs

Brumm, Adam

doi:10.1080/03122417.2018.1468059

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Ground axes and adzes are some of the most difficult stone tools to create; requiring both a high level of skill to knap preforms, and a long investment of labour to grind the cutting edge and other parts of the surface [ 1 – 5 ]. They are so clearly artefacts and yet so mysterious as to their process of production to non-knappers, that they were generally thought to be ‘thunderbolts’ in recent folk beliefs, including across Wallacea [ 6 ]. Ground axes and adzes are particularly prevalent in, and characteristic of, the Neolithic; being instrumental in the Holocene transition from foraging to farming in many parts of the world [e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early ground axe technology in Wallacea: The first excavations on Obi Island

et al. 2020

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The first excavations on Obi Island, northeast Wallacea, reveal three phases of occupation beginning in the terminal Pleistocene. Ground shell artefacts appear at the end of the terminal Pleistocene, the earliest examples in Wallacea. In the subsequent early Holocene occupation phase, ground stone axe flakes appear, which are again the earliest examples in Wallacea. Ground axes were likely instrumental to subsistence in Obi's dense tropical forest. From~8000 BP there was a hiatus lasting several millennia, perhaps because increased precipitation and forest density made the sites inhospitable. The site was reoccupied in the Metal Age, with this third phase including quadrangular ground stone artefacts, as well as pottery and pigs; reflecting Austronesian influences. Greater connectivity at this time is also indicated by an Oliva shell bead tradition that occurs in southern Wallacea and an exotic obsidian artefact. The emergence of ground axes on Obi is an independent example of a broader pattern of intensification at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition in Wallacea and New Guinea, evincing human innovation in response to rapid environmental change.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early ground axe technology in Wallacea: The first excavations on Obi Island

et al. 2020

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Material Sense: Perceptual Experience in Stone and Mineral Selection for Tool-Making

Efrati

2024

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Enactivism advocates for the dynamic character of human perception, regarding it as a multidirectional network comprising human presence and self-awareness within the world (eg., with materials, with objects, with and within locations). Thus, perception is not created by mental representations alone but by human presence and sensorimotor action and interaction in the world. This study emphasizes the vital role of perception and perceptual experience as enactive in human ontological perspectives concerning choosing and collecting stones and minerals. It will also suggest that the enactive perceptual experience of the environment occurs in its absence through memory and material relationships.

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Lightning teeth andPonari sweat: Folk theories and magical uses of prehistoric stone axes (and adzes) in Island Southeast Asia and the origin of thunderstone beliefs

Cited by 2 publications

References 61 publications

Early ground axe technology in Wallacea: The first excavations on Obi Island

Early ground axe technology in Wallacea: The first excavations on Obi Island

Material Sense: Perceptual Experience in Stone and Mineral Selection for Tool-Making

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