Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia 4111;
School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia 2522.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Apr 18;114(16):4105-4110. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1619013114. Epub 2017 Apr 3.
Wallacea, the zone of oceanic islands separating the continental regions of Southeast Asia and Australia, has yielded sparse evidence for the symbolic culture of early modern humans. Here we report evidence for symbolic activity 30,000-22,000 y ago at Leang Bulu Bettue, a cave and rock-shelter site on the Wallacean island of Sulawesi. We describe hitherto undocumented practices of personal ornamentation and portable art, alongside evidence for pigment processing and use in deposits that are the same age as dated rock art in the surrounding karst region. Previously, assemblages of multiple and diverse types of Pleistocene "symbolic" artifacts were entirely unknown from this region. The Leang Bulu Bettue assemblage provides insight into the complexity and diversification of modern human culture during a key period in the global dispersal of our species. It also shows that early inhabitants of Sulawesi fashioned ornaments from body parts of endemic animals, suggesting modern humans integrated exotic faunas and other novel resources into their symbolic world as they colonized the biogeographically unique regions southeast of continental Eurasia.
华莱士地区是分隔东南亚大陆地区和澳大利亚的大洋岛屿带，其提供的有关早期现代人类象征文化的证据很少。在这里，我们报告了在苏拉威西岛华莱士地区的 Leang Bulu Bettue 洞穴和石棚遗址中，距今 30000-22000 年前存在象征活动的证据。我们描述了迄今为止尚未记录的个人装饰和便携艺术实践，以及颜料处理和使用的证据，这些证据与周围喀斯特地区有年代的岩画的年代相同。在此之前，这个地区完全没有发现过多种不同类型的更新世“象征”人工制品的组合。Leang Bulu Bettue 组合为我们提供了一个了解现代人类文化在全球扩散的关键时期的复杂性和多样化的视角。它还表明，苏拉威西岛的早期居民用当地特有的动物的身体部位制作饰品，这表明现代人类在殖民生物地理上独特的欧亚大陆东南部地区时，将外来动物群和其他新颖的资源融入到他们的象征世界中。
