Three Possible Palaeolithic Age of Portable Arts from Sungai Batu Bokah, Southern Lombok, Western Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia

Mahirta*, Anggraeni, and Didit Hadi Barianto

Portable arts refer to small artworks that can be easily moved, are crafted from a variety of materials, and are created using a range of techniques. Research on Palaeolithic portable art in Indonesia is hard to find. Until the recent discovery of two portable arts in Sulawesi, dated to 26,000–14,000 years ago, and one fish-shaped pendant from the Pia Hudale site in Rote, dating to approximately 11,000 years ago, there is almost no other information on the occurrence of portable arts from other Pleistocene sites in Indonesia. Our recent preliminary survey in Southern Lombok in June 2025, along the seasonal small river named Sungai Batu Bokah, Southern Lombok, found three portable arts consisting of one rounded hand axe in a fish figurine shape, one terrestrial standing animal figurine similar to couscous in a curled up position, and one rounded stage hand axe with palm hand carving on one side of it. All are made of coral fossils. Other archaeological finds in the context include red pigments and numerous rounded Palaeolithic artefacts, as well as fresh scar flakes and cores, suggesting that all the findings represent different periods of human occupation. Those portable arts are shaped with a combination of percussion technique, retouching, abrasion., and incision. The terrestrial animal figure was painted with orange-reddish colour pigments. A preliminary chemical analysis using Raman result in that the pigment is Cadmium, and the research is still continuing to confirm the pigments' characteristics with other methods. More intensive research is planned to determine the site's dating.