| Abstract: |
The Asia-Pacific region has a long tradition of rock art, dating back some 40,000 years to the same period in which the practice first appeared in Europe (Taçon et al. 2014). In Southeast Asia (SEA), hunter-gatherers were making rock art well before the Neolithic. Uranium series dating suggests that hand stencils and paintings in Sulawesi and possibly Timor were made between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago (Aubert et al. 2007
Aubert et al. 2014
Bulbeck 2004
OConnor et al. 2010
Taçon et al. 2014), and approximately 9000 years ago in East Kalimantan (Borneo) (Chazine 2005
Plagnes et al. 2003). Although rock art definitely occurred in early antiquity in the region, the vast majority of the 440 or so rock art sites in Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) and the western Pacific have been attributed to the Neolithic Austronesian Painting Tradition (APT). Uranium series dating identified some of the rock art attributed to the APT in caves in the far east of East Timor as younger than 6300 b.p., supporting the assumption that some rock art was likely associated with an Austrone-sian expansion into the region (Aubert et al. 2007). APT attributions are based on site location, placement of art at the sites, design and technical elements, motif types, stylistic affinities, and the modern distribution of Austronesian languages in relation to the sites (Ballard 1992
Wilson 2004). In one of the first regional syntheses of rock art sites of western Melanesia, Ballard (1992) identified sites associated with the Austronesian Painting Tradition as generally: 1) close to the coast
and 2) distributed in regions populated in modern times by Austronesian-speaking populations. Furthermore, rock art at these sites was usually located: 3) in relatively inaccessible areas, such as on cliff faces high off the ground, inside caves or rock shelters, or on boulders
and 4) on areas highly visible from the ocean (Ballard 1992).
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