Abstract

The environmental extremes of the Last Glacial Maximum and the subsequent warming and sea-level rise into the Holocene had profound implications for human behavior across much of the world. In northern New Guinea, the Maluku Islands, and the Philippines, shell adzes appear during this period alongside contact between islands. In this paper we present new data from the site of Asitau Kuru, Timor-Leste, to show that the creation of shell adzes and greater inter-island connectivity also characterizes the early and middle and early Holocene in the Nusa Tenggara archipelago of southern Wallacea. We suggest that one of the functions of these shell adzes was in making dugout canoes enabling regular access to neighboring islands; the import of exotic stone materials; long-term occupation of very small islands; and, with new hook and line technology, the capture of more fish. This evidence predates the Neolithic in the region and corroborates a linguistic hypothesis that there was a pre-Austronesian interaction sphere covering much of Wallacea.

摘要

最后冰川最大时期的极端环境以及随后的全新世变暖和海平面上升对世界许多地方的人类行为产生了深远的影响。在新几内亚北部，马鲁古群岛和菲律宾，在此期间，伴随着岛屿之间的接触出现了贝壳状的滋味。在本文中，我们从东帝汶的Asitau Kuru站点提供了新的数据，以表明壳ad的形成和更大的岛间连通性也表征了华莱士南部努沙登加拉群岛的早，中，初新世。我们建议这些贝壳状帐篷的功能之一是制造独木舟，使它们能够定期进入邻近的岛屿。进口稀有石材；长期占领非常小的岛屿；并且，借助新的钩线技术，捕获更多的鱼。该证据早于该地区的新石器时代，并证实了一种语言假设，即存在一个前南斯拉夫式的相互作用圈，覆盖了华莱士大部分地区。