Paper short abstract:

Timor-Leste has been identified as having the world’s earliest pelagic fisheries and fishhooks. Here we present new evidence for similar Pleistocene maritime technology in a neighbouring island in Nusa Tenggara Timor, Alor.

Paper long abstract:

Timor-Leste has been identified as having the world's earliest pelagic fisheries and sophisticated maritime technology, such as fishhooks, appears in the sequence by at least 17,000 calBP. It has been proposed that the reliance on maritime resources seen in the Timor-Leste archaeological record is largely due to the depauperate terrestrial faunal base which focused subsistence on the resources of sea. Here we present new evidence for similar Pleistocene maritime technology in a neighbouring island in Nusa Tenggara Timor, Alor. As well as finished hooks, the Alor assemblages have evidence for hook production allowing us to discuss the process of manufacture. Terrestrial faunal resources in Alor are even more restricted than in Timor-Leste and here again we see subsistence focused on a broad range of marine resources.