Diffusion of Ancient Sea Fishing Culture

The recent discovery of shell fish hooks in the Persian Gulf offers an opportunity to reexamine the ancient diffusion of sea fishing culture and general maritime culture and the possible Nusantao linkages.

Single-piece, curved shell fish hooks have a strong circum-Pacific distribution in the early Holocene period but also extend all the way to the Persian Gulf and northeastern Africa toward the West.


Distribution of Shell Fish Hooks beginning in Early Holocene


Click on image for full-size map


The sites shown in the map above are generally associated with shell mound cultures. In some of these areas the single-piece, curved shell fish hook is preceded by a straight, multi-piece hook made of non-shell material.

Even after exposure to civilization, the Nusantao Maritime Trade and Communication Network may have used the extreme maritime mode of living as exemplified by the shell mound culture for exploration voyages. Sea fishing/hunting and shellfish collection would allow the Nusantao explorers/merchants to quickly adapt to new, unknown territories without carrying a lot of supplies.

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John Weinstein, © The Field Museum

Shell fish hooks, South Coastal Californians (3000 BC-AD 900), California
(From: http://archaeology.about.com/od/northamerica/ig/Ancient-Americas-/Shell-Fishhooks--California.htm)

The early shell fish hooks from Timor were made from Trochus niloticus, and the same species was used for fish hooks at the Vanuatu and Tikopia sites. Latter peoples of the Pacific favored pearl shell to make fish hooks, and some early theorists had even suggested that the Pacific was colonized by peoples looking for new pearl fishing grounds. The earliest shell hooks predated the Austronesian expansion, but Proto-Austronesians appear to have adopted this item quickly as shown by the PAN reconstruction *kawil "fish hook." The Austronesian speakers generally used the single-piece, curved shell fish hook, either the angling or the trolling variety.

Proto-Oceanic also has another reconstruction for "fish hook" in the form of *kima "shell fish hook, clamshell" that appears to be related to a common word in Papuan languages kimai and its cognates that also mean "shell fish hook, clamshell." Possibly *kima and kimai are remnants of Pre-Austronesian words for these items.

Robert Blust has suggested a diverse set of roots -- kug, kuk, kuy, kul, kel, ku(q), luk, luy, and tuk -- all having the meaning 'to bend, curve.' Some of these roots appear similar to words constructed for Nostratic and other long-range families, but Torsten Pedersen has suggested that these forms may instead have been diffused at an early date by a 'waterfront' people.

A number of words like bend, hook, curve, etc. at least appear related to Proto-Austric *kun[k,q], 'bend', if not the Proto-Austronesian roots. And there are a few words that might relate direction to Proto-Austronesian *kawil such as ga:la "fish hook" and its cognates from the Dravidian languages, gaLa "fish hook" from Pali and Prakrit, and possibly kullab "hook, fish hook," Arabic.

S. Starostin has suggested a term for "fish trap, net" as found in his hopelessly large language family called "Borean" in which he combines an expanded Austric grouping together with Sino-Caucasian. Here again it's possible that an early long-range diffusion by a maritime culture may explain this term rather than genetic language inheritance. Here are some examples of the possible related forms:

PMP *saruk "type of fishing net"
Proto-Austric *[ʒ]al "fishing net or basket"
UAN *zalah or *d'ala' "fishing net"
Proto-Sino-Tibetan *[ʒ́h]ŏn (˜-ɫ) "fish trap or basket"

Following is a list of Proto-Austronesian (PAN) and Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) fishing terminologies giving a good idea of the importance of sea fishing as an early source of sustenance in this region.

Fishing Terms	PAN	PMP
bait		*baŋi
bait, trolling lure	*paen	*paen
fish basket trap	*bubu	*bubu
fish corral		*belat
fish drive		*kebuR
fishhook	*kawil	*kawil
fishing dip net		*lawa(n,q)
fishing net		*saruk
fishing line		*hapen
fishing net float		*apung
fishing pole		*bitik
fish poison		*tuba
seine net		*puket
sinker		*buliq
spear		*saet
torch, torch fishing		*damaR

Diffusion of Fish Poisons

One of the most interesting areas of research is the widespread use of fish poisons to stupefy and then catch fish, and its relevance to early migration and the development of early agriculture.

For sea fishing, the poisons are usually cast into inter-tidal pools during low tide to stun fish, which are then easily scooped up by hand, net, etc.

Proto-Austronesian *tuba "fish poison, to poison fish" usually refers to either the Derris or Tephrosia species although many other plants are also used. Some species like Barringtonia, which has a waterborne seed, may have been diffused mainly by sea currents. However, other plants like Derris uliginosa, Derris elliptica, Mundulea suberosa, Anamirta cocculus and a number of Tephrosia species do not transfer well over water and are often found in areas where their wild progenitors are lacking or rare, suggesting human agency.

"...Derris uliginosa, is used as a fish poison from the Zambezi River in Africa, through India and Southeast Asia to the Philippines, Java, Australia, Fiji, and the Marquesas. This distribution is much more indicative of a possible human role in its dissemination because Derris, when used as a fish poison, is commonly a cultivated plant and may have been spread over some of its broad range by human action. A third fish poison, Mundulea suberosa, "probably as a result of age- long cultivation" (Howes 1930:133) is used throughout tropical Africa as well as in Madagascar, India, and Ceylon. Or again, Anamirta cocculus is reported from Brittany to the Philippines, including Palestine, Arabia, Persia, India, Malaya, and Java. Another widely distributed plant used in the same way is Derris elliptica, reported from India, Malaya, Indonesia, Borneo, Philippines, the Caroline Islands, and New Guinea."

(Quigley 1956:510)

A strong argument can be made for the distribution of these plants along the spice trade routes in the Old World and by the Lapita expansion in the Pacific.

Tephrosia purpurea (Tephrosia piscatoria) appears to have a pantropical range as a fish poison and often is cultivated without wild parents throughout much of its range. The plant is native to tropical Asia.

Many of the Tephrosia species used for fish poisoning are nearly identical and can often be distinguished only by experts. The same can be said for the Derris and Lonchocarpus species suggesting that these plants may have been mistaken by migrants for the same plants used as fish poisons in former habitats. Another possibility is that early voyagers sought out similar looking plants with the idea that they possessed similar properties.

Quigley lists a number of other fish poisons with spotty pantropical distributions:

Pantropical plants of other genera which are recorded as piscicides in at least part of their range are Cissampelos pareira L. (used in the Philippine Islands and the West Indies according to Quisumbing 1947:146 and Killip and Smith 1935:14); Sapindus saponaria L. (Killip and Smith 1935:14); and Entada phaseoloides L. (used in the Philippines, India, and South Africa, according to Quisumbing 1947; Chopra 1941; and Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk 1932).

(Quigley 1956:520)

Many of the fish poison plants are wasteland weeds and easily cultivated making them ideal for semi-nomadic seafarers to carry along with them. The fish poisoning method does not require as much local knowledge of fish habits and fish species for success as do most other types of sea fishing.


Seascape

Proto-Malayo-Polynesian naturally has many reconstructed terms for the seascape. Here is a partial list of PMP and PAN terms:

*lahud ‘downriver, towards the sea’
*qarus 'current'
*qalun ‘long rolling wave, swell, billow’
*budaq 'foam, froth'
*busa 'foam'
*ruab 'high tide'
*lajay 'coral'
*buŋa ni batu ‘coral sponge’
*sakaRu ‘reef, shoal’
*namaw ‘sheltered water: deep place in a river; cove, harbour, lagoon'
*l(i,u)mut 'seaweed'
*ma-qaCi 'ebb, low tide' (PAN)
*sawaq 'channel, passage'
*qaNud 'drifting on current'
*Nabek ‘breakers, surf, waves’ (PAN)

Remember that the early seafarer did not have the same technologies as those in medieval times or during the Age of Exploration. The vessels were generally smaller with less storage space and lacking waterproof compartments. The sails and materials of those early boats generally necessitated going along with the wind and currents as much as possible and not fighting against these elements. The ability to live as much as possible off the sea itself would have been of great advantage to early explorers and sea traders.

We find that even into the late period that the large kingdoms and empires of Southeast Asia still maintained communities that lived on the water. The king of Sanfotsi exempted these people from taxes, possibly a recognition of their importance to the ancient maritime culture of the region.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Quigley, Carroll. "Aboriginal Fish Poisons and the Diffusion Problem," American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 58, No. 3, (Jun., 1956), 508-525.

Landberg, Leif C. W. "Tuna Tagging and the Extra-Oceanic Distribution of Curved, Single-Piece Shell Fishhooks in the Pacific," American Antiquity, Vol. 31, No. 4 (Apr., 1966), 485-493.

O’Connor, S. "Unpacking the Island Southeast Asian Neolithic Cultural Package, and Finding Local Complexity," IN: Bacus, Elisabeth A, Ian C. Glover, Vincent C. Piggot. Uncovering Southeast Asia's Past, NUS Press, Singapore, 2006.

Pawley, Andrew. "The origins of early Lapita culture: The testimony of historical linguistics," http://epress.anu.edu.au/terra_australis/ta26/pdf/ch02.pdf, 2007.

Phillipson, David W. African Archaeology, Cambridge University Press, 2005, 181-2.

Ross, Malcolm D.; Andrew Pawley; Meredith Osmond, eds. The lexicon of Proto-Oceanic: the culture and environment of ancestral Oceanic society. Canberra: Australian National University E Press, 2007.

White , Nancy. South American Archaeology: Archaic/Preceramic (6000-2000 B.C.): Emergence of sedentism, early ceramics, http://www.indiana.edu/~arch/saa/matrix/saa/saa_mod03.html, 2005.

First evidence of shell fish-hook technology in the Persian Gulf

A new article is out on the discovery of shell fish hooks in the Arabian Gulf (Persian Gulf). Previously shell fish hooks had been discovered at Indian Ocean sites on the Arabian peninsula but not in the Gulf. Here is the abstract of the article.

First evidence of shell fish-hook technology in the Gulf

Authors: Méry, Sophie¹; Charpentier, Vincent¹; Beech, Mark²

Source: Arabian archaeology and epigraphy, Volume 19, Number 1, May 2008 , pp. 15-21(7)

Publisher: Blackwell Publishing

Abstract:

The technology of shell fish-hooks and line fishing is well attested in the coastal areas of the Indian Ocean during the Neolithic period (fifth-fourth millennium BC). Their presence in the coastal area of the Arabian Gulf is now confirmed by new findings from Akab (Umm al-Qaiwain) and Shimal (Ra's al-Khaimah) in the United Arab Emirates.

One of the article's authors, Mark Beech, wrote an article, The Development of Fishing in the U.A.E.: A Zooarchaeological Perspective, in which he compares the use of shell fish hooks in the Gulf with practices in the Pacific (without suggesting direct links).

Shell fish hooks are found in the Neolithic kits of Insular Southeast Asia especially in Taiwan and Timor, but are more abundant in Oceania. The word "fish-hook" has been reconstructed in Proto-Austronesian as *kauil and in Proto-Malayo-Polynesian as *kawil.

Beech, citing Charpentier and Méry (1997), notes that the limestone tools found at apparent shell fish hook workshops in Oman resemble tools used for the same purpose in Polynesia at a much later period. He quotes Sir Joseph Banks' observation on the island of Tahiti:

. . . the shell is first cut by the edge of another shell
into square pieces. These are shaped with files of coral,
with which they work in a manner surprising to any one
who does not know how sharp corals are. Ahole is then
bored in the middle by a drill [. . .] the file then comes
into the hole and completes the hook . . .’

(Best 1929: 32–3)

Other similarities between the shell mound fishing cultures of Oman and the Arabian Gulf with those of the Pacific and Southeast Asia, although of different chronology, include the use of gorges and lures, and stone wall fish corrals. In both regions, we find that Neolithic cultures also practiced sea mammal hunting.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

Glossary: Shellfish Gathering

The use of shellfish as a primary source of protein has been linked by some researchers with the development of modern homo sapiens.

The earliest anatomically modern humans are associated with shell mounds in South Africa dating to 100,000 years ago. According to one theory of human migrations out of Africa along a southern route, populations hugged the coast because of their shellfish gathering practices.

The human nervous system, like that of all mammals, is composed almost entirely of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (AA).

These essential fatty acids are generally lacking in land-based animals but high in in fish and shellfish. A study by Broadhurst et al. suggests that the move to shellfish and fish as major parts of the diet is linked with the brain development in early humans. They argue that such a diet "would have provided the advantage in multi-generational brain development which would have made possible the advent of H. sapiens. Restriction to land based foods as postulated by the savannah and other hypotheses would have led to degeneration of the brain and vascular system as happened without exception in all other land based apes and mammals as they evolved larger bodies."

The building of shell mounds by shellfish gathering people eventually took on a cultural form that is rather distinctive. The mounds were usually built at some distance from the community at first. Studies have suggested that the depth of shell mounds increases by about 8 inches to 1 foot per 100 years.

Eventually as the mounds grew high enough the community would often relocate on top of the structure. The raised elevation provided protection from floods and tides. Once on top of the mound, the midden continued to grow. Some waste was disposed of right under the home over the existing midden, while other types of waste were moved to a nearby dump that tended to extend the size of the current mound.

Some middens were also used as burial grounds and platforms for ceremonies. In cultures that still build shell mounds like the sea gypsies of Southeast Asia, the Andaman Islanders and the Nicobar Islanders, the heaps are a source of pride for the community.

Surface of a shell mound, Andaman Islands

In shellfish gathering cultures, the work tends to be done by women while men hunt, fish or do other chores. Consumption of shellfish and fish, on the one hand, is associated with nomadic and underdeveloped communities, and on the other with the food of the world's elite i.e., caviar, escargot, sashimi and oysters.

In the islands of Southeast Asia, shells were formed into blade tools during the early or pre-Neolithic period. These tools were often made from the operculum. In addition to their use as blades, shells were also used for bailers, scrapers, sanders, hooks, shovels and other instruments.

For some uses, shell tools were superior to those made of stone, while inferior for other uses. This situation may have sparked the trade of shell for stone tools and vice a versa in early Southeast Asian cultures.

The value of shells and their availability to seafaring merchants probably led to their eventual use as the first trade currency. The cowrie became the principal shell for this purpose over much of the world.

When the Phoenicians developed coins for trade they made them into the shapes of murex, scallop and triton shells. Today shells are displayed on the coinage of various countries.

Imperial Volute (Cymbiola imperialis Linne) on Philippine sentimo coin

Triton's Trumpet (Charonia tritonis Linne) on Vanuatu 2 vatu coin

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Broadhurst CL, Wang Y, Crawford MA, Cunnane SC, Parkington JE, Schmidt WF. "Brain-specific lipids from marine, lacustrine, or terrestrial food resources: potential impact on early African Homo sapiens." Comp Biochem Physiol B Biochem Mol Biol. 2002 Apr;131(4):653-73.

Shellfish as Trade Goods, http://www.manandmollusc.net/advanced_uses/trade_goods.html

The Marine Folk

In Robert Temple's The Sirius Mystery, the author explores widespread testimony of ancient water beings that were usually part human or humanoid and part fish, serpent, dragon. Often the human part was replaced by a bull or horned goat.

These creatures were nearly invariably linked with the sea. While there are theories that these marine fish folk might even have come from other star systems, the most logical terrestrial explanation cannot avoid the Austronesian hypothesis.

The shell mound culture belonged to the marine people par excellence. At the end of the last Ice Age, the shell mound folk in Asia were mostly harvesting around shallow intertidal areas or in freshwater rivers and streams near the seacoast. With the coming of rising sea levels, the shellfishing gathering activities moved more into mangrove estuaries and the coral reefs.

The archaeological evidence suggests they became skilled at fishing and sea mammal hunting producing a wide range of gear -- net sinkers, spindle whorls, fish-hooks, harpoon heads, etc.

I mentioned previously that there is early Paleolithic evidence of beyond-the-horizon navigation. Toward the beginning of the Nusantao period, the evidence appears again in apparent voyages from mainland Southeast Asia to the Philippines and Taiwan. The latter was, at the time, a much smaller target than today as most of the island was still underwater.

Unfortunately it is difficult to reconstruct the earliest ships of the Austronesians, although some good basic clues exist. We do have fairly good knowledge of their vessels by about the 3rd century thanks to archaeological finds, Chinese texts and the famed Borobodur relief.

According to historian Pierre-Yves Manguin the largest ships could carry up to 1,000 people and 250-1,000 tons. The ancient Chinese writer Wan Chen wrote that the ships stood from 15 to 23 feet above the water and resembled 'flying galleries,' possibly a reference to the appearance of outriggers as "wings." The author describes ships with four obliquely set sails that allowed sailing in strong winds and high waves.

The boats used to this day by the Badjau, Samal and other "sea gypsies" of Southeast Asia are both lashed-lug and bifid. The lashed-lug construction gives tensile strength to boats as the frames are flexibly tied to cleats on the hull's planks. Instead of nails, wooden pegs or bindings are used again to decrease rigidity in the structure.

The bifid construction involves the use of a dugout as the base of the ship upon which the lashed-lug plank-built boat is added. This design results in "split" or bifid ends.


Lepa-lepa boat, Sabah, with bifid and lashed-lug construction

Many of the sea gypsies like the Badjau continue to live on their boats or on houses suspended over the water on stilts along the coast. They depend on fish and other marine life for sustenance moving from place to place according to tide and season.

Strongly linked with the tales of marine folk are the Fisher Kings. These watery monarchs figure largely in various Grail bloodline scenarios of the "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" type.

What we clearly see though in the various cultures that possess this motif is that the Fisher Kings are ultimately traced to sea peoples. The kings themselves often arise out of the sea dressed in fish costumes or portrayed as part fish. And they tend to have a fish diet and/or to teach fishing.

What is indicated is the extreme maritime adaptation mentioned by Oppenheimer.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

The warm "Maritime Phase" of the Arctic

The earliest shell mounds of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition period in Europe agree well with the dating of the third and last rapid-rise Sundaland flood.

In the latter part of the 19th century, the Marquis of Nadaillac commented on what he thought were clear similarities between the shell mound cultures of the Americas and those of Neolithic Europe.

http://www.globusz.com/ebooks/Prehistoric/00000014.htm

"I cannot close this account of the kitchen-middings, without
calling attention to two very interesting facts. The importance of
these mounds bears witness alike to the number of the inhabitants who dwelt near them, and the long duration of their sojourn. Worsaae sets back the initial date of the most ancient of the shell-mounds of the New World more than three thousand years. This is however a delicate question, on which in the present state of our knowledge it is difficult to hazard a serious opinion. It is easier to come to a conclusion on other points: the close resemblance, for instance, between the kitchen-middings of America and those of Europe. In both continents we find the early inhabitants fed almost entirely on fish; their weapons, tools, and pottery were almost identical in character; and in both cases the characteristic animals of Quaternary times had disappeared, and the use of metals still remained unknown. Are these remarkable coincidences the result of chance, or must we not rather suppose that people of the same origin occupied at the same epoch both sides of the Atlantic?"

It has been rather popular to theorize on pre-Columbian passages from Europe to the Americas. More recently, we have seen the theory that the Paleo-Indian Clovis culture originated in Europe. However, rarely do we hear of the possibility of pre-Columbian journeys from the Americas to Europe.

I would say that these definitely occured and Austronesians played a part in these journeys.

Shell mounds from late Mesolithic Maglemose culture, Denmark

Maglemose cultural artifacts including bifid canoe and fish hooks


On left and right, renderings of boat-shaped burials from Slätteröd, Sweden and Batan Island, Philippines (from Chris Ballard et al.), a Maglemose boat-shaped burial in center (http://cientual.com/7tesis/Paginas/C12/Ritos.htm)

The use of boat burial or boat-shaped burials were common in both Scandinavia and Southeast Asia. The Niah caves have examples of very early boat burials and also cave art showing what are apparently bifid boats. These are Neolithic burials and the artwork is positioned over the high water mark of the last major sea flood.

Another common cultural feature is found in the types of bailers used in both regions to empty water from boats. Pedersen has noted a similarity between the Proto-Oceanic and Danish words for this device:

*asu "scoop or ladle out; ladle, bailer," Proto-Oceanic
øse "bailer, scoop," Danish

The "Oceanic" bailer from Hornell. Similar bailers are also found in Pacific coast Amerindian culture

We will study next the linguistic evidence that links the Nusantao with these far-ranging similarities.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Ballard C.; Bradley R.; Myhre L.N.; Wilson M. "The ship as symbol in the prehistory of Scandinavia and Southeast Asia," World Archaeology, December 2003 2004, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 385-403(19).

Hornell, James. Water Transport: Origins and Early Evolution (1946, repr. 1970).

Back to the Northern Seas

James Hornell, one of the leading experts on the history of seafaring in the 20th century suggested that a "South Seas" culture had managed to migrate throughout much of the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions during what he calls the "Maritime Phase" starting around 4,000 BC.

At this time, the weather was much warmer in the far northern regions than it is today. Hornell identified this culture based on the following similarities:

Ship construction with tongue and groove method, no nails (at least by Neolithic).

Ships had dual bifid ends and a double dugout and plank-built construction (Bronze Age possibly Mesolithic/Neolithic transition.

Vessels had high upturned ends (Bronze Age)

Hook-shaped thole pins were used instead of oar-ports (historical period)

The use of the "Oceanic" bailer (historical period)

The practice of ship burial (Bronze Age)

Funerary sacrifice rituals (Bronze Age)

The primary release bow and arrow (historical period)

Similar totemic prow design (Bronze Age)

The "ship of the dead" and serpent motifs (Bronze Age)

In some areas, the lashing of the frame to the hull with flexible cleats (possibly Mesolithic-Neolithic transition, Bronze Age)

The raising of megaliths (Neolithic, Bronze Age)

As can be seen, not all this evidence found by Hornell can necessarily be dated all the way back to 4,000 BC. Some other important links can be added this list to include:

Shellfish collection and building of shell mounds (Mesolithic-Neolithic transition)

Use of tattoos (Neolithic)

Long bow (Neolithic)

Composite, circular fish hooks, composite bows (from horn bow), Neolithic

Toggling harpoons, sometimes of a very specific morphology

Communal longhouses

Semi-subterranean dwellings

Sea mammal hunting

Quadrangular stone adzes

Use of jade and/or nephrite

Similar motifs, myths and folklore

In some areas particularly in northern Europe, evidence suggesting linguistic contact

Some of the earliest examples of this south to north transition, as we have already discussed, may date back to pre-Austronesian Jomon times. There is evidence though that these contacts did not vanish after the warm Maritime Phase mentioned by Hornell. Enough knowledge was retained of the northern areas within the Nusantao network to maintain links, and for periodic waves of contact or migration in both directions.

We will discuss some elements of this northern maritime culture in detail starting with the bow and arrow.

In the Churning of the Milky Ocean myth, one of the products of the sea is the Dhanu, or long bow. This becomes in particular the weapon of the god Visnu.

In China, the "Yi" part of the ethnonym "Dong Yi" has been suggested to consist of a combination of the script signs ? meaning "large" or "great" and ? meaning "bow." Thus, 'Eastern people of the great bow."

The long bow is particularly popular among forest or maritime people. Most bows in Southeast Asia and the Pacific are long bows. One of the most famous long bows is the Yumi of Japan, a composite wooden bow more than 2 meters (6 feet) long.

There are some interesting similarities between bows in Southeast Asia and the Pacific with those of Japan, the Arctic and the Pacific Northwest. Some of these similarities may relate directly to developments of the pure horn bow.

Pure horn bows occur infrequently in Asia but were rather regular on the island of Java. Horn bows are generally cut from water buffalo horn because of their length and compressibility. The pure horn bow may have given rise both to the reflex bow and the composite bow.

The horn bow is always strung in the opposite direction of the natural curve as this is the only way to create sufficient tension. A bow strung like this is called a reflex bow. Although wooden and composite bows do not require this type of construction, a number of such reflex bows are found including those found among the Pacific Northwest Indians and the Andaman Islanders. Archery historican C.J. Longman thinks this may be a survival of a practice used previously in making pure horn bows.

Longman also believes the pure horn bow led to the eventual development of the composite bow. Because of the difficulty in stringing bows using the reverse curve, they tend to be strung continuously leading to quick wear-and-tear. He believed the archer would try to mend the bows artifically:

He would then restore them to their natural shape by running a thong along the back of the bow (the concave side when it is unstrung), which would be secured by being seized tightly at intervals along the bow, with transverse lashings. His thong would probably be made of animal sinew, and he would now find his bow restored to its former power, or perhaps something more. This picture of the actual course of events in the evolution of the composite bow is, of course, imaginary, and no doubt the ultimate result was, in fact, arrived at after many experiments and failures. Here, however, we have the groundwork of the weapon and the lines which are followed, in all the best types, the three main factors being:--

(1) Horn, being a compressible material for the belly.
(2) Wood as a stiffener, especially for the centre, and (as we shall see subsequently) for the ears.
(3) Sinews, an elastic stretchable material for the back.

No doubt it was a bow roughly made of these materials which ousted the primitive wooden bow throughout Asia, and spread through the lands of the Tschutshis of Eastern Siberia to the Eskimo of North America.

Another morphological pecularity of the long bow that might give an indication of common origin is the widespread occurence of a groove at the end of the bow. In the vast majority of cases, the groove serves no practical purpose and even weakens the weapon.

However, Longman mentions that Tongans and South American Indians bind an arrow in the groove -- a practical usage.

The long bow tends to be used by peoples who still use the primary release. This type of release is the most natural one in which one holds the arrow between the thumb and the forefinger. One can often distinguish primary release arrows as they tend to have bulbous or scored ends that make griping easier. Primary release arrows are rather the rule in the Pacific and much of Southeast Asia.

The arrows of this region are also distinguished by the composite use of bamboo shafts and hardwood foreshafts.

The maritime cultures of the north probably used the bow often during sea hunting expeditions. Toggling harpoon arrowheads were used for this purpose attached to a retrieving line.

Knobbed primary release arrows, Pacific Northwest Indian

New Hebrides long bow

Japanese long bow


Philippine projectile weapons from Krieger, including 1) Ayta single-piece long bow, polished palmwood, Sambali, 2) Ayta single-piece, grooved heavy long bow, palmwood, Bisaya, 3) Bagobo palmwood bow bound in rattan, 4) Moro palmwood bow with cord of bamboo splint.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento


References

Krieger, Herbert W., "The Collection of Primitive Weapons and Armor of the Philippine Islands in the United States National Museum," Smithsonian Institution; United States National Museum, Bulletin 137 (1926).

Longman, C.J. and Col. H. Walrond, Badminton Library of Sports: Archery. New York, F. Ungar Pub. Co., 1967.

Bering Sea Cultures

The movement of southern peoples into Arctic areas like the Bering Sea possibly did not start with the Nusantao. There is a leading theory that the Jomon originated in the south and eventually migrated into the Siberia region.

The Sundadont dental pattern is believed to have originated in Southeast Asia, probably specifically Sundaland. The Jomon were strongly Sundadont. They had other anthropological and cultural traits pointing to the south. Some cultures in contemporary southern coastal China and Vietnam had similarities to Jomon culture.

At least 17,000 years ago, the Jomon had reached Japan. Despite their probable southern origins they were able to proceed further northward into the cold expanse of Siberia. The Jomon were a maritime culture and practiced shellfish gathering and sea/aquatic mammal hunting. In other words, they were very similar to the Nusantao who followed them.

Hunting sea mammals provided skins and blubber that were important in surviving in the Arctic. The Nusantao practice of building on mounds eventually led to semi-subterranean structures, according to Russian researchers, that also helped in adapting to extreme cold weather environments. The Arctic maritime people built both semi-subterranean homes and plank-built longhouses.

Shellfish were available everywhere even in places where agriculture was impossible as long as the sea or a river was available and this was yet another advantage in migrating northward.

The early Bering Sea and Eskimo/Inuit cultures appear to have been influenced by the Nusantao in the same way as the Shandong and Yayoi cultures.

We find shell middens with net sinkers, fish hooks, toggling harpoons, projectile points and other implements similar to those used further south. There are similar designs on paddle-stamped pottery. This type of pottery was also found in Neolithic Southeast Asia.

Old Bering Sea paddle-stamped pottery with "lizard man" and sun designs

Jade and nephrite was was used, and some of this likely came from the Yangtze delta, the major source for eastern Asia. A peculiar motif that occurs in the Lianzhu culture of the Yangtze Delta known as the taotie is of particular interest. The taotie is a stylized "face" with circle dot eyes (a sun symbol).

Taotie face with circle dot eyes from Liangzhu culture, Yangtze delta, Neolithic

Lapita pottery



Bronze age axe from Roti, Indonesia


Tunghat "winged" design on Old Bering Sea harpoon

The winged design of the Tunghat above has been compared to the bicephalous Sisiutl motif of the maritime Northwest coast Kwakwaka'wakw Indians. The winged and bicephalous designs are similar to those found on lingling-o and the bicephalous pendants of the Sa-Huynh-Kalanay culture of Southeast Asia, which we have noted was a middle period Nusantao derivative.

Sisiutl of Kwakwaka'wakw Nation

Bicephalous lingling-o

"Winged" and other Lingling-o (http://madeinthephilippines.com)

The movement to the north also appears to have brought the bifid ship construction used by Arctic and sub-Arctic maritime cultures. This particular technology together with lashed-lug construction appears even much further away in Scandinavia, something we will deal with later in this blog.

Als boat from Denmark (http://axelnelson.com)

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento