Black drawings at the cave site of Gua Pondoa, Southeast Sulawesi: The motifs and a comparison with pigment art elsewhere in Sulawesi and the broader Western Pacific region

Abstract

Drawing on cave surfaces constitutes a human production that involved depicting objects, events or symbolic notions. With this perspective, we can gain an insight into both mundane and ritual aspects of the life of earlier communities. Here we look at the art of Gua Pondoa in the Matarombeo Massif of Southeast Sulawesi and discuss its commonalities with other pigment art in Sulawesi and that found elsewhere in the Western Pacific region referred to under the umbrella term the 'Austronesian Painting Tradition', and find both similarities and differences.