Earlier this year I posted two columns on the rock art of the island of Sulawesi (Faris 2021), one of the islands of Indonesia. One pictograph in a cave on Sulawesi is currently the oldest dated painted zoomorph known, dated to 45,500 BCE. Less widely advertised is a large collection of megalithic stone carvings in Lore Lindu National Park, a 2,180 km2 reserve in the province of Central Sulawesi. “There are over 400 granite megaliths in the area, of which about 30 represent human forms. They vary in size from a few centimeters to 4.5 meters. The original purpose of the megaliths is unknown. Other megaliths are in form of large pots (Kalamba) and stone plates (Tutu’na). Various archaeological studies have dated the carvings from between 3000 BC to 1300 AD.” (Indonesia-tourism.com)
“Sulawesi, also known as Celebes, is one of the four Greater Sunda islands and was first inhabited during prehistory when the island almost certainly formed part of the land bridge used for the settlement of Australia and New Guinea by at least 40,000 BC. A majority of the present-day inhabitants descend from the Buginese or Bugis people, which are an ethnic group that migrated around 2000 BC to the area around Lake Tempe, and Lake Sidenreng, in the Walannae Depression in the southwest peninsula of Sulawesi.” (Heritage Daily 2021)
“According to an inventory conducted by megalith enthusiasts of the Sagarmatha Faculty of Agriculture in 1994, there are over 300 (over 400 are now known) megalithic sites around the Lore Lindu National Park. Objects exist in the form of statues, large pots or vats, and stone mortars. Unfortunately, many of these ancient relics have been smuggled out of the area, sold and traded.” (Rosario 2020)
As is so common to we humans many of the carvings have been given names by the people.
Palindo (The Entertainer) – “This (is) the largest statue in the area standing 440 cm from the ground. It is suggested that the Palindo is related to death, because his round face and large eyes face west. According to Toraja culture, a region in south Sulawesi, west is the direction of death. This theory holds some credibility based on the fact that the Toraja and Bada people share linguistic and cultural similarities. For example, both the Bada and Taraja sacrifice a buffalo for the deceased during funeral ceremonies. Another local legend talls of an ancient King of Luwu, who in order to prove his dominance, once ordered 1,800 of his subjects to move the statue from its location in the village of Sepe to Palopo, a long way south. The efforts failed, but as an insult to the abusive king, the people turned the once south-facing statue to the west. When the king’s followers tried to turn it back, it fell to its side, where it rests till today.” (Rosario 2020)
Maturu (Sleeper) – “Measuring 3.8 meters, Maturu looks very much like a horizontal Palindo, but with very faded features. It was referred to by explorers from the early 1900s as ‘the statue that lies on its back.’” (Rosario 2020)
Kalamba (Large pots) – “Just up the path from Maturu, are vast stone cisterns, which are dotted across the valley. The Kalamba may have been used as baths or burial chambers for nobles and those of high status.” (Rosario 2020)
Oba (Monkey) – “This small fellow sits in the midst of a paddy field. It is a small statue, just barely over 40 cm from the ground. As its name suggests, this figure has amusingly monkey-like features.” (Rosario 2020)
All in all Sulawesi presents us with a number of new chinks in the armor of the old Euro-centric colonial assumptions on the development and advancement of human culture and force a serious and comprehensive re-appraisal of the role of Southeast Asia.
NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.
REFERENCES:
Central Sulawesi, indonesia-tourism.com, accessed in September 2021.
Faris, Peter, 2021, The Effects of Climate Change on the Pleistocene Rock Art of Sulawesi, 5 June 2021, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com
Faris, Peter, 2021, A New Candidate for the Oldest Pictograph – the Sulawesi Pig, 13, February 2021, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com
Heritage Daily, 2021, The Lore Lindu Megaliths, https://www.heritagedaily.com.
Rosario,
Flame, 2020, Lore Lindu & the
Mystifying Megaliths of Bada Valley, https://www.cryptoanthropologist.com
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