Laili

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Laleia (East Timor)
Laleia
Laleia
Laili Cave is located near Laleia on the north coast of Timor

Laili is a limestone cave near the village Laleia ( Office of Administration Laleia , community Manatuto ), near the northern coast of East Timor . In the cave, traces of settlement could be detected that are between 11,200 and up to 44,600 years old (first settlement between 43,283 and 44,631 years ago cal BP ) and thus as of 2017 are the oldest known records of people in Wallacea and in this way an indication of the Give way to the first settlers of Sahul ( Australia and New Guinea ). Zoo archeology, stone artifacts, bathymetric and experimental isotope analyzes are used for the investigations . The previously oldest finds came from the Jerimalai Cave on the eastern tip of Timor and are around 42,000 years old.

Location of the cave

Savannah and casuarinas on the Laleia River near the city of the same name

The area consists of savannahs with woods and grasslands of the river plain in the valley of the river Laleia . The partially collapsed cave is located about 4.3 kilometers from the north coast of Timor in a secluded limestone rock at an altitude of 86  m .

44,600 years ago, at the time of the oldest traces of settlement, the sea level was 63  m lower and the coast was 450 meters further away. At the height of the last climax of the Ice Age 18,000 years ago, the sea level was even 130  m lower and the shore was five kilometers away.

The finds

The finds from the 2011 excavation were examined at the Australian National University . They in Laili reflect people's adaptations to changes in their surroundings over time. They used the locally abundant flint to make tools in order to take advantage of the wildlife in the diverse but stable environment of the Pleistocene . While the Stone Age inhabitants of other sites on the islands of the region apparently lived mainly from the sea, there are indications in Laili that the settlers there also used food sources near the shore and from freshwater bodies of water.

The stone artefacts discovered differ partly in their shape from previously known finds from Timor and the nearby Flores . Others resemble specimens from Jerimalai or Mata Lot on Flores. In addition to a few small fragments of human bones, the two dog teeth (which came from modern times), four extinct species of rats , four extinct species of giant rats , at least one species of flying fox and six species of insectivorous bat were found . Other bones come from six species of birds, one species of toad and a few from lizards, snakes, sea turtles and freshwater turtles. In small quantities there have been finds from freshwater eels ( Anguillidae ) and parrot fish (Scaridae). In the layers that are assigned to the time of the height of the last ice age 18,000 years ago, the amount of fish remains decreased significantly. The animal remains also included shells of mussels and crustaceans that came from the sea, mangrove swamps, and fresh water.

rating

The researchers assigned their findings to three phases: the early settlement in the Pleistocene, between 44,600 and 27,000 years calBP, the phase of the climax of the last Ice Age, between 26,000 and 16,000 years BP and the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene 15,000 to 3,000 years ago.

In the time of the early settlement, the cave was significantly further away from the sea due to the lowered sea level and the steep coastline. The climate was colder and drier and it was closer to the mountain forest zone. The remains of fauna from this period come from the sea, mangrove swamps and rivers, as well as from grasslands and forests. The birds came more often from grassland and scrubland than from wetlands and forests, while the bats came from the forest. Since the bones of rats and giant rats remained the same in quantity over time, human habitation does not appear to have had any effect on the mouse rodent population at the time. Except for the Timor rat , all rodents discovered here are now extinct on Timor, possibly due to the decline of the forest in the late Holocene. In general, however, as one suspected in other studies, the animal world was already relatively impoverished at the time of the first human arrival on Timor, if one compares it with that of Java , the Aru Islands or New Guinea. While the extinction of larger mammal species in Flores and Sulawesi is attributed to the first human settlers in the Pleistocene, the large animal species that previously existed in Timor, such as the mini stegodon , a giant tortoise and a large lizard similar to the Komodo dragon , seem to have disappeared before they even arrived to be.

These stable living conditions could explain why the stone tools in Laili have hardly changed technically over time. There were also hardly any improvements to existing tools. Something similar is known from other Neolithic finds in Wallacea. The relatively large amount of stone artefacts is striking, if you compare Laili with other sites on the Sunda Islands , Wallacea or Sahul. The reason could be that high-quality flint was available in large quantities on site. The increase in such stone tool waste towards the height of the Ice Age indicates a greater settlement of the cave during that time.

The fish bones found are relatively few. Parrotfish are found in coastal reefs, which must have existed off the north coast during this time. The eels live in rivers most of the time. Mussels were probably collected near the coast, on the shore and in fresh water. As sea levels fell over time, the species from the mangrove swamps and freshwater increased proportionally. When the water in the river declined at the height of the Ice Age 18,000 to 21,000 years ago, the number of freshwater mussels also decreased. Crustaceans living on land were mainly caught, and sea creatures less often. Overall, it can be said that while in other well-known localities in the region near the coast the animal food consisted mainly of fish, sea turtles and shellfish from the sea, this was not the case in Laili. The menu resembles more inland localities like Matja Kuru 2 (10 km from the coast, settled 35,000 years ago) and Uai Bobo 2 (100 km inland, 16,000 years old).

supporting documents

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Hawkins et al. P. 58.
  2. ↑ Michelle C. Langley, Sue O'Connor, Elena Piotto: 42,000-year-old worked and pigment-stained Nautilus shell from Jerimalai (Timor-Leste): Evidence for an early coastal adaptation in ISEA
  3. ↑ a b Hawkins et al. P. 59.
  4. ↑ Hawkins et al. P. 63.
  5. ↑ Hawkins et al. P. 60.
  6. ↑ Hawkins et al. P. 65.
  7. ↑ Hawkins et al. P. 67.
  8. ↑ Hawkins et al. P. 68.
  9. ↑ Hawkins et al. Pp. 68 & 69.
  10. ↑ Hawkins et al. P. 69.
  11. ↑ Hawkins et al. P. 70.