Early human symbolic behavior in the Late Pleistocene of Wallacea

Abstract

Wallacea, the zone of oceanic islands separating the continental regions of Southeast Asia and Australia, has yielded sparse evidence for the symbolic culture of early modern humans. Here we report evidence for symbolic activity 30,000-22,000 y ago at Leang Bulu Bettue, a cave and rock-shelter site on the Wallacean island of Sulawesi. We describe hitherto undocumented practices of personal ornamentation and portable art, alongside evidence for pigment processing and use in deposits that are the same age as dated rock art in the surrounding karst region. Previously, assemblages of multiple and diverse types of Pleistocene "symbolic" artifacts were entirely unknown from this region. The Leang Bulu Bettue assemblage provides insight into the complexity and diversification of modern human culture during a key period in the global dispersal of our species. It also shows that early inhabitants of Sulawesi fashioned ornaments from body parts of endemic animals, suggesting modern humans integrated exotic faunas and other novel resources into their symbolic world as they colonized the biogeographically unique regions southeast of continental Eurasia.

Keywords: Pleistocene art; Pleistocene symbolism; Wallacea; cognition; personal ornamentation.

Fig. 1.

LBB, (A and B) location, (C) site plan, and (D) excavation profiles. In B, dotted white lines highlight the main karst areas. Also shown are the locations of nearby sites with Late Pleistocene human occupation: Leang Burung 2, Leang Timpuseng, and Leang Sakapao 1.

Fig. 2.

Personal ornaments from LBB. (A) Disk-shaped bead blanks on Babyrousa sp. lower incisor: Red arrow indicates notch created by the use of a tool edge in directing the force of a blow through the tooth during sectioning. Detail of the fractured edge shown in C and both faces of BBA are shown at bottom left. The natural perforation consisting of the pulp cavity is in-filled with sediment. (B) Perforated A. ursinus phalanx: D provides detail of the intact perforation with attack point (top) and polish and smoothing of perforation wall visible. (Scale bar, 1 mm.)

Fig. 3.

Incised stone artifacts from LBB. (A) Artifact 153 (layer 4a), a used truncated flake with traces of red ochre at the tip (shown magnified in Inset). The cortical surface of the artifact was lightly incised with a leaf-like motif. (B) Artifact 443 (layer 4a), a flake struck down a steep cortical ridge on the core and truncated. The cortical back is lightly incised with four lines oriented at right angles to the ventral surface. (C) Artifact 2344 (layer 4d), an unmodified flake with a cross incised into a sunken square on the cortex. (D) Artifact 10 (layer 4a), a thin fragment of tabular limestone lightly incised with a cross-hatched pattern. (Scale bar, 10 mm.)

Fig. 4.

Evidence for pigment use at LBB. (A) Used ochre nodule (layer 4a). On the accompanying illustration, striations from scraping are depicted in dark gray. (B) Use-worn ochre piece (layer 4a); light gray, ground area; dark gray, scraped area; midgray, scraped area partially worn away by abrasion. (C) Ochre nodule with flake scars at the proximal extremity suggesting it was detached from a larger nodule (layer 4b)—a central (dorsal) facet reaches 14.8 mm from the distal edge and, along with a single facet located on both the left and right sides of this central one, displays evidence for rubbing against a soft surface. (D) Use-worn ochre piece (layer 4a). (E–G) Chert artifacts with red ochre residues from layer 4a. (H) Chert flake with ochre residues (layer 4f). (I) Chert flake with ochre residues (layer 4f). (J) Possible pigment blow-pipe made on a bear cuscus long bone (layer 4b). [Scale bar, (A–J) 10 mm and ( H1–3, I1 and I2, and J1–4) 1 mm.]