Page 54 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

Left: Binjai Shell Hill.
Right: Sumatran axe (Sumatralith),
typical of the Hoabinhian Culture,
found in shell sites on the eastern
coast of North Sumatra—Aceh.

EMH pioneered the use of caves after their arrival in the archipelago in the second half
of the Upper Pleistocene. Since then, it became more intensive and spread to new karst
areas. The intensification and extensification of cave dwelling so that the period of their
life could be considered the peak of cave dwelling in the history of the dawn of civilization.
In this period, groups of cave inhabiting individuals spread widely across the Indonesian
archipelago. All of the known inhabited cave sites would make a long list. Examples include
caves in the karst region of Padang Bindu in OKU region (Bellwood, 1998, Tanudirjo, 2001),
in the Semanding Mountains in Tuban, Bojonegoro, Ponorogo, Tulungagung, and Besuki
in the eastern part of Java, Bangko and Kerinci in Jambi (Heekeren, 1972, Marliac and
Simanjuntak, 1998, Soejono, 1984), Maros-Pangkep in South Sulawesi, Flores (Bronson
and Asmar, 1975), East Timor (Jacob, 1967, Verhoeven, 1953), Meratus Mountains and
Berau Bay in Kalimantan (Glover, 1972), Aru Islands (Widianto et al., 1997), Halmahera
(Spriggs, 1998), and Skoumabo in Papua (Bellwood, 1998).
The wider the karst region was, the greater the potential for having more caves, and
the bigger the inhabiting community was. The karst region of Mount Sewu in the southern
mountains of Java with 60 odd sites of inhabited cave sis an example of an inhabited center
of Australomelanesians in the early Holocene. Besides human remains in burial sites and
elsewhere, the caves yielded a wealth of findings of various things including the remains
of hunted animals of various species, lithic tools and charred remains related to activities
of the inhabitants, very outstanding bone tools and types of jewelry of various materials.
It was very likely that the caves were inhabited by groups with family ties. These groups
interacted with other cave inhabiting groups within the same karst environment, so that
they built a larger community with the same culture and behavior.

54 Chapter 1

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