Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T15:52:46.403Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Burial traditions in early Mid-Holocene Island Southeast Asia: new evidence from Bubog-1, Ilin Island, Mindoro Occidental

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 August 2019

Alfred Pawlik ,
Rebecca Crozier ,
Riczar Fuentes ,
Rachel Wood  and
Philip Piper
Alfred Pawlik*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ateneo de Manila University, Ricardo & Dr Rosita Leong Hall, Loyola Heights, Quezon City, Philippines National Museum of the Philippines, P. Burgos Drive, Manila, Philippines
Rebecca Crozier
Affiliation:
National Museum of the Philippines, P. Burgos Drive, Manila, Philippines Department of Archaeology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UF, UK
Riczar Fuentes
Affiliation:
Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Archäologie des Mittelalters, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Schloss Hohentübingen, 72070 Tübingen, Germany The Role of Culture in Early Expansions of Humans (ROCEEH) Project, Rümelinstraße 19–23, Tübingen 72070, Germany
Rachel Wood
Affiliation:
Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, 142 Mills Road, Acton ACT 0200, Australia School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University, 44 Linnaeus Way Acton ACT 2601, Australia
Philip Piper
Affiliation:
National Museum of the Philippines, P. Burgos Drive, Manila, Philippines School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University, 44 Linnaeus Way Acton ACT 2601, Australia
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: afpawlik@gmail.com)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Bubog-1 rockshelter on Ilin Island has provided important evidence for Late Pleistocene to Mid-Holocene (c. 33 000–4000 cal BP) human habitation, yet little is known about the contemporaneous transmission of material culture, technology and mortuary practices across Island Southeast Asia. Recent archaeological research at Bubog-1 has revealed a tightly flexed inhumation dating to c. 5000 cal BP—a type representative of a widespread, contemporaneous burial practice observed across the region. The emergence of diverse burial practices and their spread across Island Southeast Asia coincides with evidence for technological innovation and increasing long-distance interaction between island communities.

Keywords

Island Southeast AsiaHoloceneburial traditionsmaritime interaction
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 93 , Issue 370 , August 2019 , pp. 901 - 918
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arifin, K. 2004. Early human occupation of the east Kalimantan rainforest. Unpublished PhD dissertation, The Australian National University, Canberra.Google Scholar
Barker, G., Barton, H., Cole, F., Doherty, C., Gilbertson, D., Hunt, C., Lloyd-Smith, L., Piper, P.J., Rabett, R.J., Reynolds, T. & Szabó, K.. 2013. Rainforest foraging and farming in Island Southeast Asia. The archaeology of Niah Caves, Sarawak (Volume 1). Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Bellwood, P. 2017. First islanders: prehistory and human migration in Island Southeast Asia. Hoboken (NJ): Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119251583Google Scholar
Bulbeck, D. 2006a. Human remains from Liang Nabulei Lisa, Aru Islands, in O'Connor, S., Spriggs, M. & Veth, P. (ed.) The archaeology of the Aru Islands, eastern Indonesia (Terra Australis 22): 163–70. Canberra: ANU Press.Google Scholar
Bulbeck, D. 2006b. The Last Glacial Maximum human burial from Liang Lemdubu in northern Sahulland, in O'Connor, S., Spriggs, M. & Veth, P. (ed.) The archaeology of Aru Islands, eastern Indonesia (Terra Australis 22): 255–94. Canberra: ANU Press.Google Scholar
Bulbeck, D. 2008. An integrated perspective on the Austronesian diaspora: the switch from cereal agriculture to maritime foraging in the colonization of Island Southeast Asia. Australian Archaeology 67: 31–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/03122417.2008.11681877Google Scholar
Détroit, F. 2006. Homo sapiens in Southeast Asian archipelagos: the Holocene fossil evidence with special reference to funerary practices in east Java, in Simanjuntak, T., Pojoh, I.H.E. & Hisyam, M. (ed.) Austronesian diaspora and the ethnogeneses of people in Indonesian archipelago: proceedings of the International Symposium: 186–204. Jakarta: LIPI.Google Scholar
Fox, R. 1970. The Tabon Caves: archaeological explorations and excavations on Palawan Island. Manila: National Museum of the Philippines.Google Scholar
Galipaud, J., Kinaston, R., Halcrow, S., Foster, A., Harris, N., Simanjuntak, T., Havelle, J. & Buckley, H.. 2016. The Pain Haka burial ground on Flores: Indonesian evidence for a shared Neolithic belief system in Southeast Asia. Antiquity 90: 1505–21. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2016.185Google Scholar
Hung, H.-C. 2019. Prosperity and complexity without farming: the South China Coast, c. 5000–3000 BC. Antiquity 93: 325–41. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2018.188Google Scholar
Kress, J.H. 2004. The necrology of Sa'gung rockshelter and its place in Philippine prehistory, in Paz, V. (ed.) Southeast Asian archaeology: 239–75. Manila: University of the Philippines Press.Google Scholar
Lara, M., Paz, V., Lewis, H. & Solheim, W.G.. 2013. Bone modification in an Early Holocene cremation burial from Palawan, Philippines. International Journal of Human Osteology 25: 637–52. https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.2326Google Scholar
Lloyd-Smith, L. 2012. Early Holocene burial practice at Niah Cave, Sarawak. Journal of Indo-Pacific Archaeology 32: 54–69. https://doi.org/10.7152/jipa.v32i0.12844Google Scholar
Lloyd-Smith, L., Barker, G., Barton, H., Cameron, J., Cole, F., Doherty, C., Hunt, C., Krigbaum, J., Lewis, H., Manser, J., Paz, V., Piper, P.J., Rushworth, G. & Szabó, K.. 2013. ‘Neolithic’ societies c. 4000–2000 years ago: Austronesian farmers?, in Barker, G. (ed.) Rainforest foraging and farming in Island Southeast Asia: the archaeology and environmental history of the Niah Caves, Sarawak (Niah Cave Project Monographs 1): 255–98. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Lloyd-Smith, L., Krigbaum, J. & Valentine, B.. 2016. Social affiliation, settlement pattern histories, and subsistence change in Neolithic Borneo, in Oxenham, M. & Buckley, H. (ed.) The Routledge handbook of bioarchaeology in Southeast Asia and the Pacific: 257–88. Abingdon: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Matsumura, H., Hung, H.-C., Nguyen, L.C., Zhao, Y., Ya-Feng, , He, G. & Chi, Z.. 2017. Mid-Holocene hunter-gatherers ‘Gaomiao’ in Hunan, China: the first of the two-layer model in the population history of East/Southeast Asia, in Piper, P.J., Matsumura, H. & Bulbeck, D. (ed.) New perspectives in Southeast Asian and Pacific prehistory (Terra Australis 45): 61–78. Canberra: Australian National University. https://doi.org/10.22459/TA45.03.2017.04Google Scholar
Matsumura, H. et al. 2019. Craniometrics reveal ‘two layers’ of prehistoric human dispersal in Eastern Eurasia. Nature Scientific Reports 9: 1451. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-35426-zGoogle Scholar
Neri, L.A., Pawlik, A.F., Reepmeyer, C., Mijares, A.S.B. & Paz, V.J.. 2015. Mobility of early Islanders in the Philippines during the Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene boundary: PXRF-analysis of obsidian artefacts. Journal of Archaeological Science 61: 45–55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2015.05.005Google Scholar
Noerwidi, S. 2017. Using dental metrical analysis to determine the Terminal Pleistocene and Holocene population history of Java, in Piper, P.J., Matsumura, H. & Bulbeck, D. (ed.) New perspectives in Southeast Asian and Pacific prehistory (Terra Australis 45): 79–96. Canberra: ANU Press. https://doi.org/10.22459/TA45.03.2017.05Google Scholar
O'Connor, S., Aplin, K., Pasveer, J. & Hope, G.. 2006. Liang Nabulei Lisa: a Late Pleistocene and Holocene sequence from the Aru Islands, in O'Connor, S., Spriggs, M. & Veth, P. (ed.) The archaeology of the Aru Islands, eastern Indonesia (Terra Australis 22): 125–62. Canberra: ANU Press.Google Scholar
O'Connor, S., Mahirta, , Samper Carro, S.C., Hawkins, S., Kealy, S., Louys, J. & Wood, R.. 2017. Fishing in life and death: Pleistocene fish-hooks from a burial context in Alor Island, Indonesia. Antiquity 91: 1451–68. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2017.186Google Scholar
Pawlik, A. & Piper, P.J.. 2019. The Philippines from c. 14 000–4000 BP in regional context. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 29: 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774318000306Google Scholar
Pawlik, A.F., Piper, P.J., Faylona, M.G.P.C., Padilla, S.C. Jr, Carlos, J., Mijares, A.S.B., Vallejo, B. Jr, Ingicco, T., Reyes, M.C., Amano, N. & Porr, M.. 2014. Archaeological excavations at Bubog I & II on Ilin Island, Philippines: preliminary studies on island adaptation and foraging strategies in changing environments from the Terminal Pleistocene to the Early Holocene. Journal of Field Archaeology 39: 230–47. https://doi.org/10.1179/0093469014Z.00000000090Google Scholar
Pawlik, A.F., Piper, P.J., Wood, R.A., Lim, K.A., Faylona, M.G.P.G., Mijares, A.S.B. & Porr, M.. 2015. Shell tool technology in Island Southeast Asia: an early Middle Holocene Tridacna adze from Ilin Island, Mindoro, Philippines. Antiquity 89: 292–308. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2015.3Google Scholar
Paz, V. 2012. Accessing past cosmologies through material culture and the landscape in the Philippines, in Rountree, K., Morris, C. & Peatfield, A.A.D. (ed.) Archaeology of spiritualities: 133–62 New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3354-5_7Google Scholar
Piper, P.J. 2016. Human cultural, technological and adaptive changes from the end of the Pleistocene to the Mid-Holocene in Southeast Asia, in Oxenham, M. & Buckley, H.R. (ed.) The Routledge handbook of bioarchaeology in Southeast Asia and the Pacific: 24–45. Abingdon: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Piper, P.J. & Rabett, R.J.. 2014. Late Pleistocene subsistence strategies in Southeast Asia and their implications for understanding the development of modern human behaviour, in Dennell, R. & Porr, M. (ed.) Southern Asia, Australasia and the search for modern human origins: 118–34. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139084741.010Google Scholar
Rabett, R.J. & Piper, P.J.. 2012. The emergence of bone technologies at the end of the Pleistocene in Southeast Asia: regional and evolutionary implications. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 22: 37–56. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774312000030Google Scholar
Rabett, R.J., Barker, G., Barton, H., Hunt, C., Lloyd-Smith, L., Paz, V., Piper, P.J., Premathilake, R., Rushworth, G., Stephens, M. & Szabó, K.. 2013. Landscape transformations and human responses, c. 11 500–4500 years ago, in Barker, G. (ed.) Rainforest foraging and farming in Island Southeast Asia: the archaeology and environmental history of the Niah Caves, Sarawak: 217–54. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Reepmeyer, C., Spriggs, M., Anggraeni, , Lape, P., Neri, L.M., Simanjuntak, T., Summerhayes, G., Tanudirjo, D. & Tiauzon., A. 2011. Obsidian sources and distribution system in Island Southeast Asia: new results and implications from geochemical research using LA-ICPMS. Journal of Archaeological Science 38: 2995–3005. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2011.06.023Google Scholar
Scott, E.C. 1979. Dental wear scoring technique. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 51: 213–17. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.1330510208Google Scholar
Simanjuntak, T. & Asikin, I.N.. 2004. Early Holocene settlement in eastern Java. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 24: 13–19.Google Scholar
Szabó, K. 2010. Shell artefacts and shell-working within the Lapita cultural complex. Journal of Pacific Archaeology 1: 115–27.Google Scholar
Walrath, D.E., Turner, P. & Bruzek, J.. 2004. Reliability test of the visual assessment of cranial traits for sex determination. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 125: 132–37. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.10373Google Scholar
Westaway, K.E. et al. 2017. An early modern human presence in Sumatra 73 000–63 000 years ago. Nature 548: 322–25. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature23452Google Scholar
Yondri, L. 2005. Kubur Prasejarah Temuan Dari Gua Pawon Desa Gunung Masigit, Kabupaten Bandung Provisini Jawa Barat: Sumbangan Data Bagi Kehidupan Prasejarah di Sekitar Tepian Danau Bandung Purba. Unpublished MA dissertation, Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Pawlik et al. supplementary material

Pawlik et al. supplementary material 1

Download Pawlik et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 97.5 KB