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Moluccan boats from Indonesia identified in Australian rock art

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Archaeologists from Flinders University have identified Moluccan vessels from Indonesia in rock art paintings found at Awunbarna, Arnhem Land, Australia.

According to the researchers, these findings are the first-ever archaeological proof of visitors from Southeast Asia originating outside of Makassar on Sulawesi arriving in mainland Australia.

Two watercrafts depicted in the rock art feature motifs that appear on the Moluccan types of Southeast Asian vessels. They are distinct from other seafaring cultures from the region, enabling the researchers to confirm their identity.

As well as their distinctive shape and configuration, both boats appear to display triangular flags, pennants, and prow adornments. By comparing these two depictions with historically recorded watercraft from islands in Southeast Asia, the researchers  suggest that they probably came from eastern Maluku Tenggara in Indonesia.

Dutch explorers in the Moluccas reported as early as the mid-seventeenth century that inhabitants from the islands regularly sailed to the north coast of Australia.

The rock art provides compelling new evidence of undocumented interactions between Indigenous people from Awunbarna in Arnhem Land and visitors from the Moluccas.

Dr Mick de Ruyter, from Flinders University, said: “These motifs support existing ideas that sporadic or accidental voyages from Indonesia to the Australian coastline took place before or alongside regular trepang fishing visits.”

Dr Daryl Wesley, said: “The drawings we have identified don’t appear to represent any known European or colonial watercraft types. Similar “canoes” are represented in rock art elsewhere on Australia’s northern shore, but none appear with similar details to those at Awunbarna. The nearest candidate is the most elaborate Indigenous Australian vernacular watercraft, the canoes of the Torres Strait Islands.”

“This identification of Moluccan craft has significant implications for the reasons mariners from these islands may have been on the northern Australian coastline, and subsequently for the intercultural encounters on the Arnhem Land coast,” added Dr Wesley.

Flinders University

https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-023-00390-7

Header Image Credit : Flinders University

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Archaeology

Monastic site founded by St Moulag discovered on Scottish island

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Archaeologists from the Lismore Historical Society have announced the discovery of a stone built monastic site on the Hebridean Isle of Lismore.

According to the researchers, the site dates from the 7th to 10th century AD and was likely founded by St Moluag, an Irish missionary who evangelized the Picts on the western seaboard of Scotland.

Lismore had long been an important religious centre for the Gaelic kingdom of Dalriada, which likely motivated the decision to found a monastic community in AD 562. Irish missionaries had learnt to focus heavily on the similarity and continuity between early Christianity and Paganism rather than the differences between them.

However, according to tradition, the rock on which Moluag stood detached itself from the Irish coast and he drifted across to the island of the Lyn of Lorn in Argyll, now called the Isle of Lismore in Loch Linnhe.

Following a six year community led project on the island, members from the Lismore Historical Society have uncovered an oval stone building and a workshop where craft workers manufactured jewellery from precious metals.

Part of a crucible – Image Credit : Lismore Historical Society

Radiocarbon dating has placed the building to the 7th-10th century AD during the period of the early monastery.

The study has so far discovered fragments of around 120 crucibles, broken ceramic moulds for making penannular brooches, and carvings made in stone, wood, bone and antler.

According to a press statement by the Lismore Historical Society: “XRF analysis of the surfaces of these crucibles at the National Museum of Scotland has revealed that they were used for melting copper-alloys, silver and gold.

This fine craft activity is evidence of a sophisticated and influential monastic centre, the society said, with analysis and conservation of 1500 significant finds from the site ongoing.

Header Image Credit : Lismore Historical Society

Sources : Lismore Historical Society

This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily

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Archaeology

Inrap archaeologists uncover medieval castle beneath French hotel

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Excavations at the Château Lagorce, a former 18th century private mansion in Vannes has revealed traces of the town’s medieval castle.

Vannes is located in the Morbihan department of Brittany in north-western France. In medieval times, the town served as the centre of a principality or kingdom recognised as Bro-Wened (“Vannes”) or Bro-Ereg (“land of Gwereg”).

Recent excavations by archaeologists from the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap) have found traces of the towns medieval castle in preparation for the development of a fine arts museum.

As part of the first phase of excavations, the researchers have conducted a study of the mansion’s courtyard where they uncovered two stories of the castle’s defensive wall and a moat, located at a depth of 13 feet beneath street level.

The castle was built around 1380 by Jean IV who held the titles of Duke of Brittany and Count of Montfort from 1345, and the 7th Earl of Richmond from 1372. Known as the Château de l’Hermine (Castle of Hermine), the castle was constructed to assert the Duke’s central authority over his duchy and the town of Vannes.

Image Credit : Emmanuelle Collado, Inrap

According to Inrap, the surviving stonework suggests that the castle had three to four floors and several staircases, one of which has been described as “remarkably preserved”. The team also found markings on several worked stones that the workers used to follow a building, and architectural features such as the latrines and drainage pipes.

A search of the latrines has also revealed traces of castle life from the 15th and 16th centuries, including coins, knives, tiles, wooden bowls, kitchen utilities, and several pieces of jewellery. Due to the conditions of the soil, objects such as items of clothing, shoe buckles, pins, rings, and a ball padlock have also survived.

Excavations have also uncovered a mill connected to the residential part of the castle, where a large water well was powered by water passing through a canal, and remnants of a bridge that connected the castle to the town.

Header Image Credit : Emmanuelle Collado, Inrap

Sources : Inrap

This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily

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