User:HeladoLoco/Sumatralith: Difference between revisions – Wikipedia

 

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=== Categories of Sumatraliths ===

=== Categories of Sumatraliths ===

The Hoabinhian assembledge excavated near Medan in Eastern Sumatra was comprised of mainly unifacial sumtraliths with only one biface.<ref name=”:6″ /> Early methods of categorization divided Sumtraliths into 3 categories.<ref name=”:6″ /> Mühlhofer created these categories: Large broad unifacial tools, Large narrow unifacial tools, and Small unifacial tools.<ref name=”:6″ /> Lebzelter created these: Oval/disc-shaped/elongated pick-like tools, flakes from pebbles, and broad facetted flakes.<ref name=”:6″ /> Analysis of [[Sumatra]] [[Hoabinhian]] assembledges has revealed that sumatraliths had 2 primary functions, as scrapers and hand axes.<ref name=”:6″ />

The Hoabinhian assembledge excavated near Medan in Eastern Sumatra was comprised of mainly unifacial sumtraliths with only one biface.<ref name=”:6″ /> Early methods of categorization divided Sumtraliths into 3 categories.<ref name=”:6″ /> Mühlhofer created these categories: Large broad unifacial tools, Large narrow unifacial tools, and Small unifacial tools.<ref name=”:6″ /> Lebzelter created these: Oval/disc-shaped/elongated pick-like tools, flakes from pebbles, and broad facetted flakes.<ref name=”:6″ /> Analysis of [[Sumatra]] [[Hoabinhian]] assembledges has revealed that sumatraliths had 2 primary functions, as scrapers and hand axes.<ref name=”:6″ />

=== Ritual Significance ===

=== Ritual Significance ===

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A sumatralith is a unifacial stone tool closely associated with the Hoabinhian techno-complex of Southeast Asia and manufactured by hunter-gatherer communities during the late Pleistocene to the middle Holocene.^[1][2][3][4] They are oval to rectangular in shape with unifacial flaking along the circumference of a rounded cobble or pebble.^[1][3] Sumatraliths are considered “master fossils” since they are often the most important artifact when identifying a Hoabinhian archaeological assemblage.^[4]

The word “sumatralith” is derived from the place of its original identification in North Sumatra, Indonesia, where J. Neumann first recovered unifacial stone tools from a shell midden at Batu Kenong in 1920.^[4]

The end product of a typical sumatralith operational sequence, or chaîne opératoire, is a plano-convex stone tool with little-to-no shaping of the original cobble except for percussive flake removal along its periphery which is only applied to one face to produce its cutting edges.^[3][4] Since the tool is minimally shaped, there remains a significant amount of cortex on the final product.^[2] A sumatralith blank is either a rounded cobble or pebble already roughly the preferred elliptical, flattened shape of the final product.^[3][4] The homothetic structure of these tools allows for their continued resharpening and reshaping to produce smaller yet effective stone tools, thus prolonging the utility of a single original cobble or pebble blank.^[3]

Sumatraliths are commonly found in rock shelter or cave sites in direct association with a variety of faunal and plant remains suggesting their frequent use in everyday subsistence practices.^[5] At the site of Spirit Cave, sumatraliths were found in association with hearth features, peas, beans, almonds, betel, pepper tree, butternut candlenut, cucumber, bottle gourd, as well as wild cattle, pig, and deer.^[6][5] Ethnographic research from Australia shows sumatraliths being used by modern day hunter-gatherers in the form of short-axes, attatching the lithic to a short handle at a 45 degree angle.^[7] We can assume similar use patterns existing during the Hoabinhian.

The Hoabinhian assembledge excavated near Medan in Eastern Sumatra was comprised of mainly unifacial sumtraliths with only one biface.^[7] Early methods of categorization divided Sumtraliths into 3 categories.^[7] Mühlhofer created these categories: Large broad unifacial tools, Large narrow unifacial tools, and Small unifacial tools.^[7] Lebzelter created these categories: Oval/disc-shaped/elongated pick-like tools, flakes from pebbles, and broad facetted flakes.^[7] Analysis of Sumatra Hoabinhian assembledges has revealed that sumatraliths had 2 primary functions, as scrapers and hand axes.^[7]

There is limited arhcaeological evidence of Sumatraliths having ritual significance. Part of this limitation may be due to the fact that Hoabinhian burials, a key indicator of ritual significance, are few and far between.^[5] One burial at Spirit Cave suggests that sumatraliths were ritually deposited in their owner/makers grave.^[5] Burials at Moh Khiew also show ritual deposition of sumatraliths in graves.^[5] One remarkable burial from Gua Gunung Runtuh shows a middle aged man buried with a single sumatralith with use wear suggesting it belonged to him.^[5] The site of Gua Cha however, has 15 Hoabinhian burials that all lack sumatralith depositions.^[5] This is indicitive of nuance in ritual importance across the Hoabinhian.

Sumatraliths have been recovered from archaeological sites across mainland and parts of island Southeast Asia.^[1] There has been some debate as to whether or not the Hoabinhian geographic range included South China or even Nepal.^[1][2] However, the complete lack of sumatralith tools at these sites suggests to some archaeologists that they belong to “Hoabinhian-like industries,” despite the presence of other artifacts typically associated with the Hoabinhian.^[1][2] Hoabinhian sites containing Sumtraliths are most commonly found in rock shelter or cave sites.^[5] However, ethnographic study of the Mani and Semang, similar modern day hunter-gatherer groups, reveals that Hoabinhians likely inhabited a wider range of geographic locations that didn’t survive in the archaeological record.^[5]

• Van Tan, H. A. 1997. The Hoabinhian and before. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association, 16, 35–41.^[1]
• Yinghua, L., Dung, L. T. M., So’n, Đ. H., Fajun, L., Forestier, H., Yuduan, Z., Peng, C., Liwei, W., Chengpo, H., & Tingting, L. 2021. A New Technological Analysis of Hoabinhian Stone Artifacts from Vietnam and its Implications for Cultural Homogeneity and Variability between mainland Southeast Asia and South China. Asian Perspectives, 60(1), 71–96.^[2]
• Zhou, Y., Lan, X., Shen, Z., Qiu, K., Jiang, Y., Sophady, H., Yang, R., & Forestier, H. 2025. What can lithics tell us about technological complexity? Reflections on and around the Hoabinhian phenomenon in the cobble world. Archaeometry, 1–18.^[3]
• Zeitoun, V., Bourdon, E., Latsachack, K. O., Pierret, A., Singthong, S., Baills, H., & Forestier, H. 2019. Discovery of a new open-air Hoabinhian site in Luang Prabang province (Lao PDR). Dating and technological study of the lithic assemblage. Comptes Rendus Palevol, 18(1), 142–157.^[4]

• Charles Higham. (2013). Hunter-Gatherers in Southeast Asia: From Prehistory to the Present. Human Biology, 85(1–3), 21–43. https://doi.org/10.13110/humanbiology.85.1-3.0021^[5]
• VAN HEEKEREN, H. R. (1957). MESOLITHIC. In The Stone Age of Indonesia (Vol. 21, pp. 67–115). Brill. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctvbqs588.6^[7]
• Gorman, C. F. (1969). Hoabinhian: A Pebble-Tool Complex with Early Plant Associations in Southeast Asia. Science, 163(3868), 671–673. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1726336^[6]