Sequins from the sea: Nautilus shell bead technology at Makpan, Alor Island, Indonesia (original) (raw)
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In this paper, we describe 485 Oliva spp. shell beads recovered from four archaeological cave sites Jerimalai, Lene Hara, Matja Kuru 1, and Matja Kuru 2, located in Timor-Leste, Island Southeast Asia. While Pleistocene-aged examples of modified marine shells used for personal ornamentation are common in African and Eurasian assemblages, they are exceedingly rare in Southeast Asia, leading some researchers to suggest that these Modern Human societies were less complex than those found further west. In Timor-Leste, the lowest Oliva bead to be recovered was directly dated to ca. 37,000 cal. BP, making it the oldest piece of personal ornamentation in Southeast Asia. Morphometric, taphonomic, use wear, and residue analyses of these beads alongside modern reference specimens, and experimentally made examples indicate that the Oliva shells were modified to be strung consecutively (as in a necklace), and while their mode of production changed remarkably little over the thousands of years they were utilised, an increase in their deposition around 6,000 cal. BP suggests that there was a change in their use coinciding with sea-level stabilisation. These tiny beads demonstrate that early Island Southeast Asian societies produced the same kinds of symbolic material culture we have come to expect from the more intensively studied African/Eurasian region, and that limited sampling and poor recovery methods have biased our perspectives of this region.
Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, 2021
While fishhook technology is currently known to date back to ca. 22,000 cal. BP, almost all Pleistocene-aged assemblages consist of less than 10 artifacts, restricting the ability of archaeologists to reconstruct the technology. Excavations at Makpan Cave on Alor Island (Indonesia), however, has recovered an extensive assemblage of marine shell material culture, including an unprecedented number of fishhook artifacts. Here we describe 214 jabbing and rotating fishhooks made from marine gastropods, along with several possible lures, coral tools associated with their construction, and coral sinkers. Recovery of debitage as well as fishhooks in all stages of manufacture, from blanks through to fully finished examples, allow for a complete chaîne opératoire to be constructed for both main forms (jabbing and rotating) of shell fishhooks. The assemblage indicates a wide-ranging approach to marine resource extraction at Makpan over the past 15,000 years with fishhooks ranging between around 1 cm to over 5 cm long all occurring during the same period.
In this paper, we describe worked and pigment-stained Nautilus shell artefacts recovered from Jerimalai, Timor-Leste. Two of these artefacts come from contexts dating to between 38,000 and 42,000 cal. BP (calibrated years before present), and exhibit manufacturing traces (drilling, pressure flaking, grinding), as well as red colourant staining. Through describing more complete Nautilus shell ornaments from younger levels from this same site (>15,900, 9500, and 5000 cal. BP), we demonstrate that those dating to the initial occupation period of Jerimalai are of anthropogenic origin. The identification of such early shell working examples of pelagic shell in Island Southeast Asia not only adds to our growing under- standing of the importance of marine resources to the earliest modern human communities in this re- gion, but also indicates that a remarkably enduring shell working tradition was enacted in this area of the globe. Additionally, these artefacts provide the first material culture evidence that the inhabitants of Jerimalai were not only exploiting coastal resources for their nutritional requirements, but also incor- porating these materials into their social technologies, and by extension, their social systems. In other words, we argue that the people of Jerimalai were already practicing a developed coastal adaptation by at least 42,000 cal. BP.
6500-Year-Old Nassarius Shell Appliqués in Timor-Leste: Technological and Use Wear Analyses
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2015
With recognition of the early Holocene antiquity of marine shell beads in Island Southeast Asia only recently occurring, we become aware of how little is really known regarding this enigmatic class of material culture. Here we report on worked Nassarius spp. shells recovered from the Timorese sites of Jerimalai, Lene Hara, and Matja Kuru 1 and 2, and which date back to around 6500 years ago. Analysis of manufacturing traces, use wear, and residues apparent on these 91 shell artefacts indicate that they were most likely used as appliques attached to a textile or other woven item (such as baskets). These are the first mid-Holocene shell appliques to be identified in this region, and only the second example of this technology at this antiquity identified in the world. Consistency in manufacturing methods and use over several thousand years at the studied sites indicates a >4500 year long tradition of Nassarius spp. shell applique use in Timor-Leste.
Metal-Age maritime culture at Jareng Bori rockshelter, Pantar Island, eastern Indonesia
Records of the Australian Museum, 2020
Co-authors: Hawkins, Stuart, Fayeza Shasliz Arumdhati, Mirani Litster, Tse Siang Lim, Gina Basile, Mathieu Leclerc, Christian Reepmeyer, Tim Ryan Maloney, Clara Boulanger, Julien Louys, Mahirta, Geoff Clark, Gendro Keling, Richard C. Willan, Pratiwi Yuwono, and Sue O’Connor. The archaeological record of Wallacea remains exceptionally fragmentary. This is especially the case for late Holocene human occupation of the region when lifestyle and culture in marginal island environments is relatively unknown. Here we report on the archaeology of Jareng Bori rockshelter, a Metal-Age site spanning c. 1800 cal. BP up to the late historic period and situated on the eastern coast of Pantar Island in the Lesser Sunda Islands of eastern Indonesia. We use osteoarchaeological (human and vertebrate remains), invertebrate zooarchaeological (crustacean and molluscan remains), technological (lithics, shell, and pottery) and chemical sourcing (obsidian and metal) datasets to discuss networking, migration, and human subsistence strategies during this recent period of history. While some communities were no doubt living in open village settlements where they were producing pottery, the data indicate that aspects of maritime life-ways continued much as in earlier Pleistocene settlements, with people using rockshelters like Jareng Bori to pursue a range of subsistence activities focused on the shoreline. Shellfishing of rocky and reef intertidal species and fishing for mostly small herbivorous and omnivorous fishes was practised, while domestic animals only appear in the late historic period. Wider regional cultural interactions and networking are epitomized by obsidian exchange, dental modification practices, and pottery decorations, while lithic analyses indicates continuity of stone tool technology up until recent times.
Shark-tooth artefacts from middle Holocene Sulawesi
Antiquity, 2023
Although first identified 120 years ago, knowledge of the Toalean technoculture of Middle Holocene Sulawesi, Indonesia, remains limited. Previous research has emphasised the exploitation of largely terrestrial resources by hunter-gatherers on the island. The recent recovery of two modified tiger shark teeth from the Maros-Pangkep karsts of South Sulawesi, however, offers new insights. The authors combine use-wear and residue analyses with ethnographic and experimental data to indicate the use of these artefacts as hafted blades within conflict and ritual contexts, revealing hitherto undocumented technological and social practices among Toalean hunter-gatherers. The results suggest these artefacts constitute some of the earliest archaeological evidence for the use of shark teeth in composite weapons.
PaleoAnthropology, 2019
This paper reviews the raw materials used by Indigenous Australians to make beads. It includes beads recovered from archaeological sites, as well as beads collected before 1940 held in museum collections, and those that are described in pre-1940 literature and other archival material. All three sources of information indicate that people were highly selective in their choice of materials for bead production and that availability and abundance only partly determined selection. Grass and reeds, the most widespread material represented in the museum and historic sources, if used in pre-European times, have not been preserved in archaeological sites. Beads made of highly iridescent or luminous shells, that historic sources suggest were regarded as imbued with powerful properties, were selected over other, more abundant colorful or patterned shells. Teeth of large macropod species were more commonly used than any other mammals despite other species being more readily available. On the other hand, dingo teeth, which were just as large and more robust than macropod teeth, were very rarely used, and this seems surprising given dingoes’ ubiquitous presence in Aboriginal society. As dog teeth were commonly used as beads in personal adornments by Melanesian people in Papua New Guinea, and the teeth of now locally extinct dogsled carnivores are found as beads in archaeological contexts, we suggest that the lack of dog teeth beads may reflect the high status of dogs in Aboriginal societies. Although the Australian archaeological bead assemblage is small, comparison with the historically documented beads indicates that the choice of raw material has remained relatively constant for thousands of years. The historical sources also describe human teeth and other bone relics as being worn as pendants for protection for the wearer. However these are often unmodified, being suspended by resin or other non-destructive techniques. This has implications for isolated human skeletal parts found in archaeological contexts.