Paper short abstract:

This paper details the finding of three bronze drums in Timor-Leste, two of which were never reported before.

Paper long abstract:

Found across Island Southeast Asia all the way to the Maluku archipelago of Eastern Indonesia, bronze drums were unknown to Timor-Leste until very recently. After the report of a first drum found in 2014, two more were found within a distance of ca. 40 km. Despite the fact that Dong Son-related motifs are found on rock art located not too far from where the drums were found, the sudden amount of drums found at one particular region suggests that exchange networks were in place with neighbouring regions long before the first Europeans arrived. As few metal objects have so far been found in the archaeological record of the northern coast, these finds are also a good indicator for the introduction of the knowledge of bronze metalwork in the island.