The ship as symbol in the prehistory of Scandinavia and Southeast Asia

Rethinking the Neolithic in Island Southeast Asia, with Particular Reference to the Archaeology of Timor‑Leste and Sulawesi

“…It is possible that the APT originated in ISEA itself south of the Philippines, in the vicinity of the Banda Sea (Bulbeck 2008). The signiicance of the boat in life and its central place in ideology has been widely noted (Ballard et al 2004;Szabó et al 2008). Glover (1972: 42) suggested that the boat paintings in Timor-Leste "invite comparison with the 'ships of the dead' paintings at Niah…and…in this part of Timor today cofins are regularly made in the form of a boat for the journey of the spirit to its ancestors over the sea."…”

Boats Apart. Building and Equipping an Iron-Age and Early-Medieval Ship in Northern Europe.

“…We have to ask this question, since it would imply that the ship potentially may not just symbolically stand for something else , such as a divinity, god or goddess (Crumlin‐Pedersen, 1991; Crumlin‐Pederson, 1995; Ingstad, 1995). The notion that the boat is considered very much as a living thing is one step, the other indicated by several experienced observers in various ethnographic contexts (Lethbridge, 1952: 63f; Ballard et al ., 2003: 390ff). This will also affect the gender status of the boat (see below).…”

“…There are striking similarities between Iron-Age Scandinavia and recent Southeast Asia in the management of the boat as a symbolic and sepulchral agent (cf. Ballard et al ., 2003). But the boat is also in large parts of Southeast Asia the metaphor of society itself to a most striking degree, including in ritual aspects (Manguin, 1986).…”

Ships and Maritime Activities in the North-eastern Indian Ocean: re-analysis of rock art of Tham Phrayanaga (Viking Cave), southern Thailand

“…It gives us a rare visual record of a period of great cultural interaction and accelerating cultural change, with the watercraft of numerous cultural groups depicted. Furthermore, it contains a greater number of depictions of watercraft and greater diversity than any other rock-art site in greater Southeast Asia, Australia and North America (see for example Chaloupka, 1996;Bradley et al, 2002;Ballard et al, 2003;Roberts, 2004;Turner, 2006;Bigourdan and McCarthy, 2007;Lape et al, 2007;Tan and Walker-Vadillo, 2015). In this paper, the images are described and the ways in which the site informs us about maritime activity and the history of cross-cultural contact in the Andaman Sea as part of the Indian Ocean are explored.…”