FIRE-MAKING USING A STONE `STRIKE-A-LIGHT' IN THE SOA BASIN OF FLORES, INDONESIA

During recent archaeological fieldwork on the island of Flores in eastern Indonesia, the author observed a firemaking technique involving the use of a stone `strike-alight' (see Skertchly 1879). The strike-a-light used was a chalcedony flake scavenged from a prehistoric site; hence the fire-making technique has archaeological and in particular, taphonomic, significance

Laporan Ekskavasi Terhadap Situs Bomboro: Situs Tambang Rijang di Lembah Bomboro, Kabupaten Maros, Sulawesi Selatan

Wilayah karst Maros-Pangkep berisi banyak situs arkeologi Holosen dan Late-Pleistocene, banyak di antaranya berisi kumpulan artefak yang didominasi oleh artefak rijang. Namun dimikian, belum ada sumber untuk bahan baku yang telah diidentifikasi. Sementara batuan dasar kapur yang melimpah kadang-kadang berisi kantong dan lapisan nodul rijang, singkapan ini menunjukkan sedikit bukti untuk eksploitasi atau tambangan prasejarah, dan kecil kemungkinan rijang diperoleh dari anak sungai atau sungai. Situs Bomboro dipilih untuk penggalian karena permukaan tanahnya yang kaya dengan artefak batu termasuk serpihan, batu inti, dan tatal. Rijangnya mungkin telah ditambang dari nodul yang keluar dari batu gamping lokal di Lembah Bomboro. Sampai sekarang, situs ini merupakan tambang batu kuno pertama yang diidentifikasi di wilayah tersebut. Sementara tambang terbuka tidak ada duanya, itu mungkin berfungsi sebagai sumber rijang selama periode Toalean, sekitar 2-8 ribu tahun yang lalu.   The Maros-Pangkep region contains numerous archaeological sites dating from the Holocene and Late-Pleistocene, many of which contain artefact assemblages dominated by flaked chert artefacts. However, no sources for this raw material have yet been identified. While the abundant limestone bedrock contains occasional pockets and seams of chert nodules, these outcrops show little evidence for prehistoric exploitation or quarrying, and it is unlikely the chert was acquired from streambeds. The Bomboro site was selected for excavation as the ground surface is rich in chert stone artefacts including flakes, cores, and debris. Theis chert was likely quarried from the local nodules outcropping from the surrounding limestone bedrock in the Bomboro Valley, and this report describes the excavation of the first ancient stone quarry site to be identified in the region. While the open quarry was undateable, it may have served as a chert source during the Toalean period, around 2-8 thousand years ago.Wilayah karst Maros-Pangkep berisi banyak situs arkeologi Holosen dan Late-Pleistocene, banyak di antaranya berisi kumpulan artefak yang didominasi oleh artefak rijang. Namun dimikian, belum ada sumber untuk bahan baku yang telah diidentifikasi. Sementara batuan dasar kapur yang melimpah kadang-kadang berisi kantong dan lapisan nodul rijang, singkapan ini menunjukkan sedikit bukti untuk eksploitasi atau tambangan prasejarah, dan kecil kemungkinan rijang diperoleh dari anak sungai atau sungai. Situs Bomboro dipilih untuk penggalian karena permukaan tanahnya yang kaya dengan artefak batu termasuk serpihan, batu inti, dan tatal. Rijangnya mungkin telah ditambang dari nodul yang keluar dari batu gamping lokal di Lembah Bomboro. Sampai sekarang, situs ini merupakan tambang batu kuno pertama yang diidentifikasi di wilayah tersebut. Sementara tambang terbuka tidak ada duanya, itu mungkin berfungsi sebagai sumber rijang selama periode Toalean, sekitar 2-8 ribu tahun yang lalu.   The Maros-Pangkep region contains numerous archaeological sites dating from the Holocene and Late-Pleistocene, many of which contain artefact assemblages dominated by flaked chert artefacts. However, no sources for this raw material have yet been identified. While the abundant limestone bedrock contains occasional pockets and seams of chert nodules, these outcrops show little evidence for prehistoric exploitation or quarrying, and it is unlikely the chert was acquired from streambeds. The Bomboro site was selected for excavation as the ground surface is rich in chert stone artefacts including flakes, cores, and debris. Theis chert was likely quarried from the local nodules outcropping from the surrounding limestone bedrock in the Bomboro Valley, and this report describes the excavation of the first ancient stone quarry site to be identified in the region. While the open quarry was undateable, it may have served as a chert source during the Toalean period, around 2-8 thousand years ago

Laporan Ekskavasi Terhadap Situs Rakkoe: Situs Toala yang Baru Dangan Seni Pahat di Lembah Bomboro, Kabupaten Maros, Sulawesi Selatan

Kumpulan pra-Neolitik di Sulawesi Selatan didominasi oleh endapan dari periode Toala, namun demikian sifat dan luas teknokultur Toala masih mengandung teka-teki. Hingga saat ini, kronologi dari teknologi Toala masih belum jelas dan belum ada karya seni yang bisa dikaitkan dengan periode ini, meskipun terdapat seni gua dengan gambar cadas di wilayah Karst Kabupaten Maros dan Pangkep. Ekskavasi dilakukan di ceruk Leang Rakkoe, di Lembah Bomboro Maros, dengan tujuan untuk membantu mengklarifikasi masalah ini. Sementara itu, endapan tersebut terbukti tidak stabil dan tidak bisa dilakukan penanggalan, penggalian ini memberikan wawasan baru tentang teknik pembuatan artefak batu Toala pada situs dengan contoh-contoh seni pahat yang sebelumnya tidak didokumentasikan. South Sulawesi's pre-Neolithic assemblages are dominated by Toalean-period cultural deposits, however the nature and extent of the Toalean technoculture continues to be enigmatic. To date, the chronology of Toalean technology remains unclear, and no art has yet been attributed to this period despite the rich cave art of the karst region of the Maros and Pangkep regencies. An excavation was conducted at Leang Rakkoe rockshelter, in the Bomboro Valley of Maros, in the hope that it could help clarify these issues. While the deposits proved unstable and could not be directly dated, the excavation did provide new insights into Toalean stone artefact manufacture techniques at a site containing previously-undocumented examples of engraved art

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

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

Age and context of the oldest known hominin fossils from Flores

Recent excavations at the early Middle Pleistocene site of Mata Menge in the So\u27a Basin of central Flores, Indonesia, have yielded hominin fossils1 attributed to a population ancestral to Late Pleistocene Homo floresiensis2. Here we describe the age and context of the Mata Menge hominin specimens and associated archaeological findings. The fluvial sandstone layer from which the in situ fossils were excavated in 2014 was deposited in a small valley stream around 700 thousand years ago, as indicated by 40Ar/39Ar and fission track dates on stratigraphically bracketing volcanic ash and pyroclastic density current deposits, in combination with coupled uranium-series and electron spin resonance dating of fossil teeth. Palaeoenvironmental data indicate a relatively dry climate in the So\u27a Basin during the early Middle Pleistocene, while various lines of evidence suggest the hominins inhabited a savannah-like open grassland habitat with a wetland component. The hominin fossils occur alongside the remains of an insular fauna and a simple stone technology that is markedly similar to that associated with Late Pleistocene H. floresiensis

An integrative geochronological framework for the pleistocene So'a basin (Flores, Indonesia), and its implications for faunal turnover and hominin arrival

Flores represents a unique insular environment with an extensive record of Pleistocene fossil remains and stone artefacts. In the So\u27a Basin of central Flores these include endemic Stegodon, Komodo dragons, giant tortoises, rats, birds and hominins, and lithic artefacts that can be traced back to at least one million years ago (1 Ma). This comprehensive review presents important new data regarding the dating and faunal sequence of the So\u27a Basin, including the site of Mata Menge where Homo floresiensis-like fossils dating to approximately 0.7 Ma were discovered in 2014. By chemical fingerprinting key silicic tephra originating from local and distal eruptive sources we have now established basin-wide tephrostratigraphic correlations, and, together with new numerical ages, present an update of the chronostratigraphy of the So\u27a Basin, with major implications for the faunal sequence. These results show that a giant tortoise and the diminutive proboscidean Stegodon sondaari last occurred at the site of Tangi Talo ∼1.3 Ma, and not 0.9 Ma as previously thought. We also present new data suggesting that the disappearance of giant tortoise and S. sondaari from the sedimentary record occurred before, and/or was coincident with, the earliest hominin arrival, as evidenced by the first records of lithic artefacts occurring directly below the 1 Ma Wolo Sege Tephra. Artefacts become common in the younger layers, associated with a distinct fauna characterized by the medium-sized Stegodon florensis and giant rat Hooijeromys nusatenggara. Furthermore, we describe a newly discovered terrace fill, which extends the faunal record of Stegodon in the So\u27a Basin to the Late Pleistocene. Our evidence also suggests that the paleoenvironment of the So\u27a Basin became drier around the time of the observed faunal transition and arrival of hominins on the island, which could be related to an astronomically-forced climate response at the onset of the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT; ∼1.25 Ma) leading to increased aridity and monsoonal intensity

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

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 \u27Wallacea\u27, 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 \u27megafauna\u27 in stratified context, as well as a cobble-based stone artifact technology comparable to that produced by late Middle Pleistocene hominins elsewhere on Sulawesi