Beaumont, Phillip;
Kealy, Shimona;
Bulbeck, David;
Sari, Devi Mustika;
Leclerc, Mathieu;
Mahirta;
Hawkins, Stuart;
... O’Connor, Sue; + view all
(2025)
Recovering a legend: The Wara Liang pottery assemblage and the origin story of Lamalera, Lembata, Indonesia.
Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology
10.1080/15564894.2025.2554654.
(In press).
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Abstract
Wara Liang is a shoreline rockshelter on Lembata island, Indonesia, where excavation in 2017 revealed a deep stratigraphy preserving evidence of forager habitation from ca. 1200 years ago. At around 600 BP, the nature of the occupation changes with a range of new zooarchaeological remains appearing, including domesticated animals as well as a substantial assemblage of earthenware pottery with some exotic tradeware. The deposition of the Wara Liang pottery at this time seemingly represents a strikingly late arrival of pottery technology at this site. Here we discuss the Wara Liang ceramics assemblage and consider a range of scenarios that may account for this apparent late technology transfer. The historical context of the time and the intensification of exogenous contact and influence in Nusa Tenggara Timor, along with the essential environmental nature of the region with its history of natural disasters and displacement of populations, are discussed in terms of effects on local communities. We also highlight the oral history and origin legend of Lamalera, a village close by the Wara Liang rockshelter and famous for its tradition of hunting whales. This origin legend intriguingly sheds light on the first use of pottery in the Wara Liang locale and provides information that credibly supplements the pottery record.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Recovering a legend: The Wara Liang pottery assemblage and the origin story of Lamalera, Lembata, Indonesia |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1080/15564894.2025.2554654 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1080/15564894.2025.2554654 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2025 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 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 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. |
| Keywords: | Metal Age pottery; tradeware; origin legends; oral history; Lomblen |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology > Institute of Archaeology Gordon Square |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10216530 |
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