Engraving sites are rare in mainland and Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) where painted art dominates the prehistoric artistic record. Here we report two new engraving sites from the Tutuala region of Timor-Leste comprising mostly humanoid forms carved into speleothem columns in rock-shelters. Engraved face motifs have previously been reported from Lene Hara Cave in this same region, and one was dated to the Pleistocene–Holocene transition using the Uranium–Thorium method. We discuss the engravings in relation to changes in technology and material culture that took place in the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene archaeological records in this region of Timor as well as neighbouring islands. We suggest that the engravings may have been produced as markers of territorial and social identity within the context of population expansion and greater inter-group contacts at this time.

中文翻译：

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石头中的面孔：拟人雕刻的进一步发现表明在末期更新世东帝汶蓬勃发展的离散艺术传统

雕刻遗址在大陆和东南亚岛屿 (ISEA) 很少见，那里的绘画艺术在史前艺术记录中占主导地位。在这里，我们报告了来自东帝汶 Tutuala 地区的两个新雕刻遗址，其中大部分是雕刻在岩石避难所中的 speleothem 柱中的人形形式。此前曾在同一地区的 Lene Hara 洞穴报道过雕刻的面部图案，其中一个使用铀 - 钍方法可追溯到更新世 - 全新世过渡。我们讨论了与帝汶这一地区以及邻近岛屿的更新世末期和全新世早期考古记录中发生的技术和物质文化变化有关的版画。