Hand stencil discoveries at Lene Hara Cave hint at Pleistocene age for the earliest painted art in Timor-Leste
Hand stencil discoveries at Lene Hara Cave hint at Pleistocene age for the earliest painted art in Timor-Leste
The distribution of known Pleistocene painted rock art in Island South-east Asia is currently limited to islands on the northern dispersal route to Australia. Here we report the discovery of at least 16 hand stencil motifs in Lene Hara Cave, Timor-Leste; a site on the alternate southern arc route. Superimposition, preservation state, differing ‘canvas’ materials (i.e. painted surfaces), and the location of the stencils in the internal (darker) part of the cave chamber together suggest that they represent an independent artistic phase that pre-dates the Holocene Austronesian Painting Tradition. The stencils are therefore recognised as a chronologically distinct painted rock art tradition, with a Pleistocene age considered most likely. Such findings have important implications for our understandings on the origins and spread of art in south-east Asia.
Cave art, Hand stencils, Lene Hara, Pleistocene, Timor-Leste
Standish, Christopher David
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García-Diez, Marcos
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O'Connor, Sue
28374a02-b755-461e-b424-0ba52a83bfb8
Oliveira, Nuno Vasco
2ac9b62d-aca6-4916-9e8d-c64fa3f6d1d5
June 2020
Standish, Christopher David
0b996271-da5d-4c4f-9e05-a2ec90e8561d
García-Diez, Marcos
fc8c2fcd-9bbb-4824-a89a-fab1f33da89d
O'Connor, Sue
28374a02-b755-461e-b424-0ba52a83bfb8
Oliveira, Nuno Vasco
2ac9b62d-aca6-4916-9e8d-c64fa3f6d1d5
Standish, Christopher David, García-Diez, Marcos, O'Connor, Sue and Oliveira, Nuno Vasco
(2020)
Hand stencil discoveries at Lene Hara Cave hint at Pleistocene age for the earliest painted art in Timor-Leste.
Archaeological Research in Asia, 22, [100191].
(doi:10.1016/j.ara.2020.100191).
Abstract
The distribution of known Pleistocene painted rock art in Island South-east Asia is currently limited to islands on the northern dispersal route to Australia. Here we report the discovery of at least 16 hand stencil motifs in Lene Hara Cave, Timor-Leste; a site on the alternate southern arc route. Superimposition, preservation state, differing ‘canvas’ materials (i.e. painted surfaces), and the location of the stencils in the internal (darker) part of the cave chamber together suggest that they represent an independent artistic phase that pre-dates the Holocene Austronesian Painting Tradition. The stencils are therefore recognised as a chronologically distinct painted rock art tradition, with a Pleistocene age considered most likely. Such findings have important implications for our understandings on the origins and spread of art in south-east Asia.
Text
Standish et al 2020 Author Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 9 March 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 18 March 2020
Published date: June 2020
Keywords:
Cave art, Hand stencils, Lene Hara, Pleistocene, Timor-Leste
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 438884
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/438884
PURE UUID: 1029c956-11d1-426a-8ba5-af56fdf7a77e
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Date deposited: 26 Mar 2020 17:30
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 05:25
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Contributors
Author:
Marcos García-Diez
Author:
Sue O'Connor
Author:
Nuno Vasco Oliveira
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