Abstract

Recent discovery of painted rock art on Wetang Island in the Babar Island group, Maluku Province, Indonesia, reflects the central place of boats in the daily lives of island peoples, as well as their paramount ritual and symbolic role in Maluku, and more broadly across Island Southeast Asia. In addition to boats, the Wetang sites contain images of domestic animals, as well as a unique image of an apparent macropod (a marsupial mammal of the family that comprises kangaroos and wallabies), a family not found on most of the Maluku islands today. The Wetang art sites have some geometric motifs in common with their neighbor island, Kisar, and we raise the possibility that these symbols may have operated as markers of family or clan identity and thus may inform on lineal ownership of land and relationships between these islands.

摘要

最近在印度尼西亚马鲁古省巴巴尔群岛的韦唐岛上发现的彩绘岩石艺术反映了船只在岛上人民日常生活中的中心地位，以及它们在马鲁古乃至整个岛屿上最重要的仪式和象征作用。东南亚岛屿。除了船只之外，Wetang 遗址还包含家畜的图像，以及明显的巨足类动物（一种有袋类哺乳动物，包括袋鼠和小袋鼠）的独特图像，该科目前在马鲁古群岛的大部分岛屿上都没有发现。韦唐艺术遗址与邻近的基萨尔岛有一些共同的几何图案，我们提出这些符号可能作为家庭或氏族身份标记的可能性，从而可能揭示土地的直系所有权以及这些岛屿之间的关系。