Paper short abstract:

The potential influence of sea people in the development of trade oriented coastal societies is here discussed. Based on recent fieldwork in the Suai area of East-Timor we address the question of antiquity of coastal groups in the region, their origin and influence on socio-economic transformations.

Paper long abstract:

In this session we are trying to address the complex question of sea-nomadism as a valuable socio-cultural entity in a mostly archaeologically invisible territory, the sea, and the nature of its interactions with the islands world.  

 We would like, in this paper centered on Timor, to highlight, some of the possible influences and interactions of sea nomads on the coastal margins. We will further use this example to discuss the complex situation of sea-nomadism in the wider subject of trade, migrations and cultural interactions, in order to highlight some ways of recognizing and integrating archaeologically this sea-people dimension in the settlement pattern of insular Southeast Asia.  

 Our talk will be based on an archaeo-geographical survey in the Tetum Teric linguistic area, around Suai on the southwestern coast of Timor-Leste where contemporary cultural proximity between austronesian Tetum-Terik and non-Austronesian Bunak, possibly originating in the ancient sandalwood trade in the political realm of the Wehali kingdom, attest of complex interactions in historical times with a possible influence from former sea-nomads. We  will discuss the archeo-geographic visibility of such interactions and question a potential archaeological signature for similar processes.