Archaeological survey of West Maggarai, Island of Flores, using Verhoeven's reports from the 1950s
Nico Alamsyah1, I Made Agus Julianto2 & Eugenius Olafianto D.W.3
1Badan Riset dan Inovasi dan Inovasi Nasional (BRIN)
National Research and Innovation Agency of Indonesia
Research Center for Archaeometry
2Archaeology Study Program
Faculty of Humanities
Udayana University
3Ikatan Archeology Indonesia
Indonesian Archaeological Association
Flores is an oceanic island in eastern Indonesia that has a long history of discovering archaeological remains. Research on Flores was first reported by Theodorus Verhoeven, a Dutch missionary and archaeologist, stating that there were at least 66 sites spread across Flores, of these, 6 sites were located on western Flores. However, these sites were not reported in detail (e.g., coordinately and administratively) and we still have a lack of information about potential sites on the West Manggarai. Based on Verhoeven's reports, the primary aim of this research was to know the location of the sites that were mentioned by Verhoeven in the 1950's. This research also aims to know the potential and prospect of sites for further research. Currently, research in Flores is mostly conducted on Soa Basin dated to ~960–700 ka and Liang Bua dated to ~190 ka until present, located in central Flores. The debate among experts about the early migration of humans to Flores has not been resolved until now and this has always been interesting to question. Conducting archaeological surveys to explore Western part of Flores is very important where this area can be the entrance gate to Flores or to any other islands located in the eastern area.