Early Metal Age Dentate-stamped Pottery and Jars in Wallacea:

Dentate-stamped pottery is identified as one of the earliest types of Austronesian pottery found in Maritime Southeast Asia, the Mariana Islands in Micronesia, the Bismark Archipelago, and other islands in Melanesia. Lapita pottery in Melanesia is one of the most famous types of dentate-stamped pottery. Throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, however, this specific type of pottery has currently only been excavated from Northern Luzon in the Philippines with a few pieces reported from Sulawesi (Kamassi, Minanga Sipakko, and Mansiri) in Indonesia. The possible dates of dentate-stamped pottery in Northern Luzon might go back as early as Neolithic times, around 4000 years ago, while the exact dates of Sulawesi dentate-stamped pottery are unclear and might date from 3500 to 2000 years ago. In such a situation, the excavation we recently conducted at the Goa Topogaro Complex in Central Sulawesi uncovered considerable amounts of high-quality dentate-stamped pottery, but these are associated with the Early Metal age burials in cave and rock-shelter sites. In this article, we synthesize the significant outcomes from our archaeological findings, such Early Metal age burials and dentate-stamped pottery from the Topogaro 2 cave and Topogaro 7 rock shelter among the complex and discuss the possible continuation of dentate-stamped pottery tradition of the Early Metal age in Central Sulawesi and its meaning.