Bioarchaeological analysis of the Northern Moluccan excavated human remains

Abstract

The Northern Moluccas form the northern apex of a triangle of small to medium-sized islands that extend to Sumba in the southwest and the Aru Islands in the southeast. These islands mark a rapid transition between indigenes with ‘Melanesian’ features to the east and inhabitants of predominantly ‘Mongoloid’ physical appearance to the north and the west. Summarising early physical anthropological research, conducted in a typological paradigm, Coon and Hunt (1965:180) wrote ‘Some of the inhabitants are Negritos; others resemble Papuans. The Mongoloid element is minor’. Glinka (1981:103) emphasised the similarities between the populations across eastern Indonesia based on multivariate analysis of the recorded anthropometric data. He noted a predominantly dark brown skin colour, wavy to frizzy hair, a low incidence of epicanthic folds, low to medium stature, heads of narrow to medium breadth in shape with a very narrow forehead, and variable facial shape. Bulbeck et al. (2006) showed that recent crania from these islands have variable affinities, but predominantly with groups to the east of Wallace’s Line, both ‘Australoid’ and Mongoloid, notably Tasmanians, Filipinos, New Britain Tolai, Guam Chamorros, and Hawaiians. The human remains excavated from the Northern Moluccas provide the opportunity to investigate whether this mixture of affinities also prevailed in prehistoric times.