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INDICATIONS OF MEGALITHIC CULTURE ON THE ISLAND OF BALI IN INDONESIA

Valdis Segliņš

Abstract

There are many ancient cultures in the world where there are no written sources and material evidence as artefacts preserved. Their identification or even revealing of signs is an important impetus for the initiation of further systematic research. In this sense, Indonesia, including the island of Bali, is a very typical example, where the earliest reliable evidence can be dated not earlier than the 4th century CE. Due to the natural conditions, there are few opportunities for the artefacts of natural origin and evidence of human activity to survive. Therefore, studies of stone material by deliberately exploring human actions that resulted in artificially assigned shapes of the stones, treated surfaces and fragments of images still present on the stone surface, can be a valid indication. Taking into consideration historically relevant tools, human knowledge of the properties of stones and their skills to process the surfaces, it is possible to distinguish stones that have been treated before metal tools become available. The study on the island of Bali indicates that there are many stones that in ancient times have been treated using stone tools only, and their shapes are similar to other megalithic cultures known elsewhere in the world. The results of this research demonstrate that the prehistory of Bali has material evidence and systematic contemporary archaeological research would form the basis for further studies of this ancient culture.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2018v/6.4/s10.092

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