Faktor Penyebab Nihilnya Gambar Cadas Prasejarah Di Kawasan Gunung Sewu, Jawa

Abstract

In late Pleistocene to Early Holocene, the form of cultures were cave dwellings accompanied by the development of Mesolithic technology, food gathering, as well as spiritual needs in the form of burials and works of art. Gunung Sewu area is known as "Prehistoric Metropolis", with plenty of caves with high potential archaeological remains. The culture of cave dwelling is generally characterized not only by lithic, bone, and shell tools, but also the emergence of burial practices and “art” in the form of rock arts on cave walls. So far, archaeological data in the cave of the Gunung Sewu area showed that rock arts are absence. This paper tries to uncover the factors behind this absence of rock arts in Gunung Sewu. Surface survey method were being employed in this study. Various prehistoric cave sites which have been studied by previous research and proven to be containing archaeological (human and cultural) potential were re-visited. The ecosystems of these sites were also surveyed, including the nearby river systems that might provide raw material for lithics Our observations revealed that several caves have an ideal walls as a media for rock arts. Our results argued that hence there are a number of possible absent rock drawings. First, natural factors (disasters, and exfoliation of the outer layer of karst), second is the geographical position which is far from the east coast of the Sunda Shelf, the third is cultural motivational factors which did not create rock art.

Keywords

• prehistoric cave settlement
• rock arts
• gunung sewu
• cave arts media