Recent Rock Art Sites from West Sumatra, Indonesia

Abstract

Rock art in Indonesia has mostly been reported from eastern parts of the archipelago and until ca. 1990 this was the only known area of rock art distribution. However, for the last three decades, investigation on many rock art complexes have revealed new evidence even from the western part of Sulawesi, which was previously considered to be the western boundary of rock art sites in Indonesia, as well as Kalimantan and Sumatra. Uranium-series dating obtained from East Kalimantan has revealed very early dates with the first appearing between 52,000 and 40,000 years ago. Such old dates came from rock art in the Maros caves of Sulawesi, with the oldest appearing 40,000 years ago. Unlike East Kalimantan, the newly discovered sites from West Sumatra Province in Sumatra provide a corpus of recent rock art. These sites reveal paintings that consist mainly of white pigment along with engraving; they substantially consist of geometric and small anthropomorphic motifs. Although many motifs bear some resemblance to other older rock art sites in Indonesia, the motifs, their contexts, and the pigment used strongly indicate a more recent age. There is also some indication that the art was produced during the ritual performance of an Islamic tariqah. This is an unusual finding since rock art is more often associated with prehistoric or traditional communities with no writing ability. This article discusses the recent appearance of the white pigment rock art from four sites, elucidates their characteristics and contexts, and compares them with other rock art in Southeast Asia and Australia. Ethnographic data was used to get a better understanding of the religious use of these caves, including the intended purpose of the paintings and their meanings along with the rituals that might have been performed during their execution.