Page 46 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

Left: Some bone tools from Song
Terus.

Right: The fireplace from Song
Terus.

because of availability of stone and tradition of technology which were followed by the
community making them. Chert stone, a fine-grained silica-rich sedimentary rock, became
the most common choice because of its hardness and fragility making it was easy to work
with. Where available in the surrounding environment, two other stones, Jasper and
Chalcedony, were among those commonly used. The absence of silicified stone often led
cave dwellers to use whatever stones were available in the surrounding environment. For
example, in Braholo Cave, Mount Kidul, limestone was used because silicified stones were
hard to get. In the Golo Cave, Maluku, tools were found made of volcanic and metamorphic
stones available in the southern part of Gebe Island (Simanjuntak, 2002).
Around this time, organic materials such as bones and shells as simple tools had
started although it was still rare. In Braholo Cave and Song Terus, bone tools were made by
working on one of the material tips for a blade (tajaman) using a nonstandard technique
(Bellwood, 1998).
There were some simple pointed tools made of a cercopithecoid fibula (a kind of
monkey) and other mammal bones including ivory. In Golo Cave, Maluku, located in the
coastline, in the layer aged 32,000-28,0000 years ago, a tool made of sea mollusk shell was
found, like opercula of turbo marmaratus (Ansyori, 2010). In the Jerimalai niche, in Timor
Leste, a hook of bone was found, which so far was known as the oldest in the world of
around 20,000 years ago (Szabó et al., 2007).
Fireplaces started to appear in this period. In Song Terus, Punung, an Indonesian-
French team found the remains of two fireplaces in a layer with a date of between 39,000
and 20,000 years old with limestone rocks arranged in a circle (O’Connor, 2007). The
effect of fire was clear on the surface of the limestone rocks and on other artifacts, bone
fragments, and sediments around the fireplace. Another finding from Golo Cave, Maluku,
was burned shells (Fauzi, 2008, Hameau, 2004) together with flaked stones in the layer

46 Chapter 1

MELANESIA BOOK FA LAYOUT 051216.indd 46 2/10/17 2:10 PM