Page 47 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

above the cave ground aged around 32,000 years ago (Bellwood et al., 1998). Another
finding was a number of stones called coral cooking stones, which were blackened because
of burning (Bellwood et al., 1998). In the upper layer two lines of coral forming a circle and
a semi-circle were found. Inside one of the lines were small volcanic stones, shells and lithic
artifacts (Szabó et al., 2007). Outside Indonesia, fireplace remains were also found in Niah
Cave, Sarawak, Malaysia (Bellwood et al., 1998).
Recently, evidence about very early art was discovered. The karst region of Maros,
South Sulawesi, is a very rich location for cave sites with pre-historic paintings. At Liang
Timpuseng, a rock painting was found in the form of a very old finger stamp aged around
39,900 years ago. It was the oldest finger stamp painting known in the world. Close to
the finger stamp was a painting of a pig-deer dated as a bit younger of 35,400 years ago
(Barker et al., 2007). The finding was stunning because of its extreme age and proved
that Indonesian EMH, the ancestors of the Melanesians, in fact had local genius, evolved
thought and an aesthetic sense which has not been observed EMH in the other parts of
the world. The only work which is comparable to the painting in Liang Timpuseng can be
found in El Castillo Cave, North Spain in a form of disc motive with the date of around
40,800 years ago (Aubert et al., 2014). The date of the paintings in some other caves in
Maros showed an old age between 40,700-17,770 years. These findings showed the distant
ancestors of Melanesian had at a very early date produced art works that only appeared
much later in other parts of the world, and which deserve a place in the history of world art.
There is also evidence of the development of human cognition in EMH. They had started
to think of “who they were and where they wanted to go”, the embryo of the concept of
belief which would emerge fully in the early Holocene.
The manifestation of that thought started to appear through the intentional
arrangement of bodies found in burial sites.
In Leang Lemdubu a half complete skeleton of a woman with the height of around 166
cm and age of around 30 years old was found and dated at 30,000 years ago. A second
skeleton was more complete, of a woman of around 25 years old dated at 17,000 years
ago buried in crouched position and covered with a pile of stones (Pike et al., 2012). What
such an intentional treatment signified has not yet been satisfactorily explained (Bulbeck,
2007). Such burial practices have also been found in the tombs in Niah Cave, Sarawak,
Malaysia dated 44,000 years ago. The findings of skeletons consciously arranged in
different positions are considered to be the early manifestation of the appearance of the
conception of belief in life after death and which further developed during the Holocene.

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