Brockwell, Sally, McWilliam, Andrew, Kealy, Shimona, Litster, Mirani, Cooling, Sam, Hawkins, Stuart, Langley, Michelle, Wolfe, Luke, and O'Connor, Sue (2024) New archaeological discoveries in north-central Timor-Leste indicate sociocultural adaptations to landscape change during the Holocene. Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology. (In Press)

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Abstract

During the Holocene, Wallacea saw dramatic sociocultural changes during the Pre-ceramic, Neolithic, Metal-age, and Colonial periods, as well as climatic and associated environmental changes that affected the landscapes and ecologies of islands. These environmental and cultural processes appear to have influenced human socioeconomic adaptations throughout the archipelago. Here, we present new anthropological and archaeological data demonstrating the effects of these processes. Excavations at the cave site of Hatu Saur on the north coast of Timor-Leste have revealed a deep archaeological sequence that dates from ca. 10,500 years until the present. The site contains extensive assemblages of faunal remains, as well as stone artifacts, revealing settlement patterns that were influenced by sea level change and estuarine infilling after 7 ka. The sequence encompasses the beginning of the Neolithic in Timor-Leste, some 3500 years ago, and the period from ca. 700 years ago when outside influences, including Chinese and Makassar traders and Dutch and Portuguese colonization, greatly affected the indigenous culture and economy on the island of Timor, reflected in the material culture remains from Hatu Saur. The archaeological findings complement related anthropological research in the region that highlights unique local mythologies of settlement origins and their contested histories.

Item ID:	80667
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1556-1828
Keywords:	Timor-leste; shellfish, vertebrate fauna, Holocene
Copyright Information:	© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Funders:	Australian Research Council (ARC)
Projects and Grants:	ARC DP0878543
Date Deposited:	09 Oct 2023 23:46
FoR Codes:	43 HISTORY, HERITAGE AND ARCHAEOLOGY > 4301 Archaeology > 430102 Archaeology of Asia, Africa and the Americas @ 100%
SEO Codes:	28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280113 Expanding knowledge in history, heritage and archaeology @ 100%
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