Rare Ancient Drawings Offer Evidence Moluccan Boats Visited Australia From Indonesia?

Archaeologists at Flinders University have identified rare images of Moluccan vessels from Indonesia’s eastern islands in rock art paintings that may provide the first archaeological evidence of visitors from Southeast Asia from somewhere other than Makassar on Sulawesi.

The rock art offers new evidence of elusive and previously unrecorded encounters between Indigenous people from Awunbarna, Arnhem Land and visitors from the Moluccas to the north of Australia, according to the research.

Two watercrafts depicted in the rock art feature motifs that appear on the Moluccan types of Southeast Asian vessels that are unlike the Macassan prahus and Western boats shown at other contact sites in northern Australia and offer enough details to help confirm their identity.

As well as their distinctive shape and configuration, both boats appear to display triangular flags, pennants, and prow adornments indicating their martial status. Comparing these two depictions with historically recorded watercraft from Island Southeast Asia shows that they probably came from eastern Maluku Tenggara in

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