Arboreal Hunting Culture: An Insight from Non-Primate Faunal Remains

Dama Qoriy Arjanto

Gunung Sewu has become one of the classic and most discussed areas in the Islands of Southeast Asia under the subject of prehistoric science. Faunal record from this region shows a significant shift on terrestrial mammalian composition of Java following major climatic events around the transition of Middle – Late Pleistocene, from open habitat adapted mammals to the rainforest adapted fauna. This period is also suggested to be the time of arrival of anatomically modern humans on the island. Archaeological records from Gunung Sewu show that humans were flexibly adapted to various environmental conditions throughout the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. In Braholo Cave for example, it has been observed a hunting preference shift during the terminal Pleistocene. Open landscape adapted large mammals predominate the assemblage dated around 25 – 18Ka. In contrast, from 15Ka onwards, forest-adapted fauna prevails. Apart from the primates, Dermoptera are also common findings from Braholo. The indications of the Malayan colugo (Galeopterus variegatus) hunting are indirect. There are no butchering marks, even though heat-induced colour alterations are visible in numbers of specimens. However, the high abundance of Malayan colugo in the deposit itself might indicate deliberate hunting. It is considered a nocturnal animal with high mobility and rarely touches the forest floor. Assessment of the mortality pattern has been performed. Adult individuals are more prevalent than younger individuals. Nevertheless, although the body size of male and female Malayan colugo is different, sexual differentiation cannot be performed from the skeletal remains in this study.