A standardised classification scheme for the Mid-Holocene Toalean artefacts of South Sulawesi, Indonesia

The archaeology of Sulawesi is important for developing an understanding of human dispersal and occupation of central Island Southeast Asia. Through over a century of archaeological work, multiple human populations in the southwestern region of Sulawesi have been identified, the most well-documented...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2021-05, Vol.16 (5), p.e0251138-e0251138
Main Authors: Perston, Yinika L, Moore, Mark, Suryatman, Langley, Michelle, Hakim, Budianto, Oktaviana, Adhi Agus, Brumm, Adam
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Archaeology
Biology and Life Sciences
Black line
Cave art
Caves
Coastal research
Cognition
Culture
Earth Sciences
Editing
Environments
Evolution
Forensic science
Holocene
Human remains
Identification and classification
Lithic
Medicine and Health Sciences
Methodology
Neolithic
Pottery
Research facilities
Reviews
Social Sciences
Stone
Tools, Prehistoric
Visualization
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Summary:The archaeology of Sulawesi is important for developing an understanding of human dispersal and occupation of central Island Southeast Asia. Through over a century of archaeological work, multiple human populations in the southwestern region of Sulawesi have been identified, the most well-documented being that of the Mid- to Late Holocene 'Toalean' technological period. Archaeological models for this period describe a population with a strong cultural identity, subdivided into groups living on the coastal plains around Maros as well as dispersed upland forest dwellers, hunting endemic wildlife with bow-and-arrow technology. It has been proposed that the Toaleans were capable of vast water-crossings, with possible cultural exchange with northern Australia, Java, and Japan. This Toalean paradigm is built almost exclusively on existing interpretations of distinctive Toalean stone and bone artefact technologies, constructed on out-dated 19.sup.th and 20.sup.th century theory. Moreover, current definitions of Toalean artefact types are inconsistently applied and unsystematic, and the manufacturing sequence has historically been poorly understood. To address these problems in existing artefact models and typologies, we present a clarified typology of the Toalean artefacts of South Sulawesi, and describe the technical aspects of artefact production. This typology provides a tool for standardising research and will facilitate more meaningful assessments of material culture repertoires and more reliable assessment of spatial and temporal changes for the region.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0251138