Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• García-Diez, Marcos
• Standish, Christopher D
• Oliveira, Nuno Vasco
• O'Connor, Sue

Titel

Lene Kici Cave Art: Possible Symbolic Evidence Associated with Palaeolithic Human Occupation in Timor-Leste

Ist Teil von

• Asian perspectives (Honolulu), 2021-01, Vol.60 (1), p.197-212

Ort / Verlag

Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Quelle

Project MUSE Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Hand stencils are the oldest manifestations of Palaeolithic cave art. Recent archaeological field research in the Tutuala region of Timor-Leste has documented new archaeological sites at the Lene Kici caves that include Palaeolithic hand motifs and other nonfigurative motifs including a disk, dots, a triangle, and possible other geometric shapes. This study characterizes the production techniques, shapes, composition, and spatial locations of these motifs. Based on the available information and regional context, a Pleistocene chronology is considered highly probable. The context of the hand stencils suggests they were not occasional motifs; rather, they seem to have dominated the early graphic repertoire of the earliest settler groups in Southeast Asia and the islands of Wallacea. Keywords: cave art, hand stencils, chronology, Upper Palaeolithic, Timor-Leste, Southeast Asia.