Lene Kici
The caves of Lene Kici are about two kilometers from the East Timorese town Tutuala ( Office of Administration Tutuala , community loud ) on the eastern point of the island of Timor . They are all located in a coral limestone terrace raised from the sea , in which the Lene Hara cave is also located. The terrace is not very high and the tunnel entrances are well hidden by the secondary forest. During the Indonesian occupation (1975-1999) FALINTIL fighters used the caves as hiding places, as did local families in 1999 to hide from the pro-Indonesian militias .
Lene Kici 1
Lene Kici 1 forms a tunnel in the limestone about 100 m above sea level. On the surface of the cave there are only scattered individual sea shells and little to no deposits. In two separate areas there are a number of rock paintings, including a picture of a red canoe with a structure in the center, near the entrance, over a narrow ledge. The picture is oriented towards the sea and can only be reached by climbing. The stern and bow of the canoe are decorated. You can see an oar and four human figures. Such images are typical of the " Austronesian painting tradition" (Austronesian painting tradition APT). Further inside the cave there are less well-preserved red pictures, probably some with faded geometric figures, two hand outlines and a fishtail painted completely red. The rest of the fish's body may have been washed away by water.
Lene Kici 2
About 50 meters northeast of Lene Kici 1 is the Lene Kici 2 tunnel cave . There is a certain amount of sediment here. In the cave there are two sun symbols (circles with halos) in red. Other black paintings, possibly simple, stylized boats, were painted over faded red paint, the motif of which can no longer be recognized. Abstracted pictures of boats are actually known from Berau Bay in West Papua , but also from other places in East Timor, such as Vérulu . The red sun symbols are similar to those in the Lene Hara cave in Berau Bay and in different variations in Dudumahan on the Moluccan island of Kei Kecil . Variations of these radiant circles were also found on clay vessels that were discovered in Niki-Niki ( West Timor ). In Lene Kici 2 there are also traces of a recent settlement. Locals report that residents of Tutuala hid here from pro-Indonesian militias during the wave of violence in 1999 .
Lene Kici 4
Lene Kici 4 forms a tunnel 20 meters west of Lene Kici 1 . Number 4 is about seven meters deep and four meters wide. Rock paintings can be found one and a half meters above the ground, three and a half meters from the entrance. A completely red-painted anthropomorph and other indeterminable red figures are all faded and covered with a layer of carbonate . The anthropomorph is headless and appears to be holding an object in its right hand.
Lene Kici 5
Lene Kici 5 is a large tunnel 25 meters west of Lene Kici 4 . It leads about 30 meters into the rock and is about 15 meters wide. Some daylight reaches the end of the cave. It offers at least two pictures of hand outlines alongside other faded, red motifs, about one and a half meters above the floor, seven meters from the entrance. The cave has deposited some sediment and mussel shells on the surface. A large clam was placed against the wall of the cave to catch water droplets from the ceiling.
Lene Kici 6
Lene Kici 6 is a smaller tunnel, to the right of Lene Kici 5 . She has at least one picture of a red hand outline further back in the chamber and other faded, red markings.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Christopher D. Standish, Marcos García-Diez, Sue O'Connor, Nuno Vasco Oliveira: Hand stencil discoveries at Lene Hara Cave hint at Pleistocene age for the earliest painted art in Timor-Leste , p. 6 , Archaeological Research in Asia, March 18, 2020.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Sue O'Connor: Nine New Painted Rock Art Sites from East Timor in the Context of the Western Pacific Region , pp. 19 ff., Asia Perspectives, Vol. 42, No.1, 2003 , accessed on April 6, 2020.