'forest people' and is a derogatory expression, and the To-ala may simply have been runaway Bugis debt slaves and landless villagers making a poor living in the forest. There is certainly no evidence to link them with the original cave inhabitants and in any case there is a gap of 2,000 years between the most recent, well-dated Toalean finds and the finding of the To-ala people (Mattulada 1979; I. Glover pers. comm.).
Figure 1.34. Caves with known prehistoric remains around Maros. 1 - Leang Burung 2; 2 - Leang Pattae; 3 - Leang Pettae Kere; 4 - Ulu Leang; 5 - Leang Burung 1. (Dark grey shade indicates hills.)
From Glover 1977
Southeast Asia during the mid-Holocene was home to two types of stone tool industry. The Hoabinhian industry was found in northern Sumatra and the Asian mainland, and is characterized by large choppers made from large split river stones. The other industry had its geographical centre in Sulawesi, typified by the 'Toalean' remains and is characterized by the production of numerous relatively small, fine flakes made from chert31 for use as knives, scrapers, etc. These small flakes, known as microliths, are of two main types: backed flakes which appeared about 6000 years B.P. and the specific 'Maros points' which appeared about 4600 years B.P. (fig. 1.35). Similar backed flakes and blades have been found in India and western Asia from about 10,000 years B.P., and in various parts of Australia from about 5000 years B.P. (Glover and Presland 1985) and before. Some of the flakes found in the Maros caves have a gloss resulting from being polished against the materials they were used to cut or scrape. The minute scratches on the glossy surfaces have been analysed and it has been concluded that between 31,000 and 19,000 years B.P. the inhabitants of Leang Burung 2 worked wood and other plant materials with a cutting motion and that the maximum diameter that could have been cut through was only 3 cm or 4 cm. Thus these rude tools could have been used for cutting strips of stems and leaves to make string, mats, baskets and simple weapons such as spears, but would not have been used for whittling or slicing to make more refined objects such as complex wooden points, spear throwers, harpoons, etc. However the tools found in Ulu Leang (dating from 9000 to 3000 years B.P.) could have been used for this finer work. Conclusions from such analyses need to be guarded because it is not possible to be sure that the remains found in the caves represent the whole arsenal or kit of tools used by these prehistoric people (Sinha and Glover 1984). There are groups of forest people today who have taboos about bringing certain tools or weapons into the living area, and this might also have been the case thousands of years ago. Alternatively, it may be just that certain tools were stored close to the areas (outside caves) where they were used.
Animal remains from Ulu Leang indicate that the most important prey were pigs and babirusa, followed by anoa, macaque monkeys, and small animals such as snakes, bats, rodents, cuscus, lizards, tortoises and squirrels. Bird and fish remains are surprisingly rare. Another very abundant food animal which was gathered around the caves was the snail Brotia perfecta. Over 90% of the shells have their dps broken off whereby the small amount of flesh could be sucked out (van Heekeren 1972). These are still found in rivers around the caves which suggests that the environment has not changed dramatically during the period in question.
Plants remains found in Ulu Leang deposits are seeds of sedges, wild grasses Panicum (Gram.), figs Firus (Mora.), Canarium (Burs.) and Bidens (Comp.), a weedy herb used by modern villagers to relieve coughs, toothaches and sore eyes and as a vegetable (Burkill 1966). In addition to the above species, remains of rice husks were found in deposits in a hearth, believed to be 1,500 years old but it is not known for certain whether cultivated forms were important in southern Sulawesi at this time (Glover 1979b, 1985). It is also very likely that the people gathered the large (up to 35 kg) surface tubers of a yam Dioscorea hispida (Dios.) which can still be found in the area and represented an important food for villagers during the Japanese occupation (Burkill 1966; S. C. Chin pers. comm.). The tuber and the foliage contain the poisonous alkaloid dioscorine which must be removed by rasping, pounding, grating and soaking, preferably in salty water. A piece of tuber the size of an apple is enough to kill a man if eaten raw (Burkill 1966).
Figure 1.35. Backed microliths and Maros points.
After Glover and Presland 1985
Two major prehistoric sites have been excavated in North Sulawesi: a coastal cave called Leang Tuwo Mane'e in the north of Talaud's main island Karakelang, and a shell midden (rubbish dump)32 at Paso on the southwest shore of Lake Tondano near some natural hot springs which would obviously have been attractive to early people. The cave deposits contain chert flakes from 4,500 to 6,000 years ago but made in a different style from the chert flakes found in South Sulawesi. In the upper layers, starting about 4,500 years ago, a thin and burnished type of pottery is found; about the same time that it appeared in Ulu Leang. The midden deposits date from about 7,500 years ago and contain scrapers made from obsidian33 flakes (Bellwood 1978). The animal remains found in the midden deposits are similar to these from Ulu Leang but the proportions and quantity of the different animals are markedly different. For example, there are four times as many pigs as anoa in Paso deposits, but fifteen times as many pigs in Ulu Leang as at Paso. There were many rodents and no tortoises at Paso but few rodents and many tortoises at Ulu Leang. At Paso the long bones of animals were broken into recognizable pieces but at Ulu Leang they were chopped up and unrecognizable (Clason 1979). Interestingly, when the Paso midden was being used, the surface of Lake Tondano was higher than it is now (Bellwood 1978), indicating that either some change has since occurred to the riverbed where the water flows out of the lake, or that the rainfall and hence average height of the lake surface used to be higher.
It can be concluded, then, that eastern Indonesia had a variety of stone tool industries worked by isolated communities of people who occupied a wide range of habitats: low swampy areas, steep rocky coasts, high mountains and inland lakes (Glover 1981). The people may have cremated their dead (Boedhisampurno 1982) and buried them in a flexed position. They painted pigs, not babirusa as stated elsewhere (van Heek-eren 1972), geometric designs and made stencils of their hands on the walls and ceilings of their caves. Some of these can still be seen in Leang Pettae and Leang Petta Kere caves in the Prehistoric Park near Maros (Soejono 1978; Anggawati 1985), but they are more or less impossible to date. Red ochre, of the sort used for the paintings, was found in deposits dating from 20-30,000 years ago but this might have been only for decorating the cave-dwellers' bodies. Paintings depicting hunting scenes, boats, and warriors on horseback (fig. 1.36) have been found recently in several rock shelters west of Raha on Muna Island (Kosasih 1983, 1984). These are probably relatively recent but the depiction of horses does not necessarily mark them as particularly recent. For example, horse sacrifices are mentioned by King Mulawarman of East Kalimantan in the 4th century in Indonesia's oldest inscription. Horses and goats would have been brought from western India as items of trade and diplomacy (J. Miksic pers. comm.). Horses are known to have been present in southern Sulawesi in the 16th century (Pelras 1981).
Remains from a Neolithic settlement have been found at Kamasi Hill near Kalumpang, a village 93 km upstream from the mouth of the Karama River in West Toraja (van Stein Callenfels 1951). Plain and decorated pieces of pottery were the most abundant artefact and are similar to remains found in China, Luzon, Vietnam and East Java. Human remains were found, as well as bones of anoa, wild and domestic pigs, and fish. In addition, the excavations revealed highly polished rectangular adzes, small chisels, ground oval axes (similar to those from China and Taiwan), spearheads (similar ones also found in Hong Kong) and stone rings. The minimum estimate for the age of the Kalumpang artefacts is between about 3000 b.c. and 5000 b.c. (Bellwood 1980b, 1985). A nearby site known as Minanga Sipakko is probably older but is less well known (van Heekeren 1972).
Figure 1.36. Hunters or warriors
