H 290 x W 205 mm
118 pages
Illustrated throughout in colour and black & white (94 plates in colour)
Published Sep 2018
ISBN
Paperback: 9781784918439
Digital: 9781784918446
Keywords
Indonesia; trade; Ethnoarchaeology; anthropology; megalith
Laboratoire d'archéologie préhistorique UNIGE
An exploration of Indonesian megaliths based on scientific documents and field visits, this work highlights misunderstood—and sometimes threatened by destruction—aspects of Indonesian cultural heritage and offers a unique perspective on megalithic monuments abandoned for several centuries in the archipelago.
Tara Steimer-Herbet is a graduate of Paris 1 - Panthéon La Sorbonne where she carried out her doctoral research on developing a methodological approach to Middle Eastern archaeology. Her research led her to become particularly interested in megalithism, and the way this phenomenon is expressed in the cultural and funerary practices of the Levant and western Arabia during the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. In 2005 she excavated a sanctuary in Hadramawt (Yemen) and since 2010 has focussed on the megalithic phenomenon in Indonesia. Her research efforts currently concentrate on the preservation of megalithic monuments in the Akkar region of Lebanon as well as on characterising the megalithic phenomenon of the 3rd and 2d millennium BC in the Kuwait region of al-Subiya, Dr Steimer currently teaches ‘archaeological methodology’ and ‘megalithism in the world’ at the Laboratory of Prehistoric Archaeology and Anthropology of the University of Geneva, Switzerland.
'...the book succeeds in revealing the wealth of Indonesian traditions to enthusiasts and will hopefully spark a revival of interest in megaliths among professionals.' - Véronique Degroot (2021), Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient