54
3 The Oceanographic Context
communication network which linked the arms of the civilized world, it was identifiably in
contact with distant lands [21].
Specifically that contact, direct or indirect, included the Spice Islands. In the
pantry of a small private house in Terqa, belonging to a land agent, Puzurum, a
handful of cloves was found with other spices in a pottery jar. These cloves can
only have come from the Spice Islands, for until the 16th century AD, the five tiny
island of Tenate, Tidore, Mutir, Machian and Bachian, which lie off the west coast of
Halmahera, were the sole source of cloves. That cloves were being used for cooking
by a middle-class family in Syria in 1721 BC suggests that by this date spice trading
to Syria was well established and was probably far older.
3.8 Ancient Spice Island Trading and Cultural Links with
Mesopotamia and the Sepik/Ramu Region of New Guinea
There is evidence of cultural interactions between the Spice Island region and
Mesopotamia, also on the Euphrates River but far to the south of Terqa, that predates the age of the Terqa clove by some thousands of years. For example, as
Oppenheimer [22] points out:
There is one distinctly Austronesian trait that appears in the early ‘Ubaid ceramics found
under, and in graves let into, the silt layer at Ur. This is the tattooing of the female
figurines. . ..There are paint marks and implants of clay pellets around the shoulders, suggestive of tattooing and skin scarification. Tattooing is a widespread Austronesian practice,
but skin scarification has a more limited distribution in Oceania. The inhabitants of the
Middle Sepik area on the north coast of New Guinea still practice this custom. Although
these people do not speak an Austronesian tongue, they have extensive cultural borrowings.
In some villages patterned scarification of the shoulders and torso is performed as an initiation rite and imitates the teeth marks of crocodiles. The resulting raised, patterned oval
keloid scars resemble those of the ‘Ubaid figurines.
Oppenheimer notes also that
Woolley noted with surprise the nature of the graves in which these figurines were found.
Rectangular in shape, the base of the grave was carpeted in deliberately shattered pottery.
The bodies were extended, unlike later burials and were also powdered in red haematite
(iron ore). One body had an extra lump of red haematite and another statuette had its face
painted bright red. A bracelet of shell beads was found around one wrist. The custom of
painting extended bodies with haematite is also seen in wooden box burials from Niah Cave
in Borneo. The earliest date for these box burials is 3800 BC.
Oppenheimer adds that the grotesque figurines found in the graves in Ur are still
being carved in wood along the north coast of New Guinea.
The two forms, tattooing and scarification, are related to skin colour. Tattooing
requires a fairer skin for the colour contrast on which tattooing patterns depend,
but scarification, based on patterned scar tissue, does not depend for effect on skin
colour. There are 19th century European accounts of scarification in New Zealand
practised by Maori women at their husbands’ funerals, collected by Elsdon Best
[23]. And Best mentions a traditional account of scarification practised by Kupe’s
daughters, Mohuia and Tokahaero, who lacerated themselves, sorrowing over their
3 The Oceanographic Context
communication network which linked the arms of the civilized world, it was identifiably in
contact with distant lands [21].
Specifically that contact, direct or indirect, included the Spice Islands. In the
pantry of a small private house in Terqa, belonging to a land agent, Puzurum, a
handful of cloves was found with other spices in a pottery jar. These cloves can
only have come from the Spice Islands, for until the 16th century AD, the five tiny
island of Tenate, Tidore, Mutir, Machian and Bachian, which lie off the west coast of
Halmahera, were the sole source of cloves. That cloves were being used for cooking
by a middle-class family in Syria in 1721 BC suggests that by this date spice trading
to Syria was well established and was probably far older.
3.8 Ancient Spice Island Trading and Cultural Links with
Mesopotamia and the Sepik/Ramu Region of New Guinea
There is evidence of cultural interactions between the Spice Island region and
Mesopotamia, also on the Euphrates River but far to the south of Terqa, that predates the age of the Terqa clove by some thousands of years. For example, as
Oppenheimer [22] points out:
There is one distinctly Austronesian trait that appears in the early ‘Ubaid ceramics found
under, and in graves let into, the silt layer at Ur. This is the tattooing of the female
figurines. . ..There are paint marks and implants of clay pellets around the shoulders, suggestive of tattooing and skin scarification. Tattooing is a widespread Austronesian practice,
but skin scarification has a more limited distribution in Oceania. The inhabitants of the
Middle Sepik area on the north coast of New Guinea still practice this custom. Although
these people do not speak an Austronesian tongue, they have extensive cultural borrowings.
In some villages patterned scarification of the shoulders and torso is performed as an initiation rite and imitates the teeth marks of crocodiles. The resulting raised, patterned oval
keloid scars resemble those of the ‘Ubaid figurines.
Oppenheimer notes also that
Woolley noted with surprise the nature of the graves in which these figurines were found.
Rectangular in shape, the base of the grave was carpeted in deliberately shattered pottery.
The bodies were extended, unlike later burials and were also powdered in red haematite
(iron ore). One body had an extra lump of red haematite and another statuette had its face
painted bright red. A bracelet of shell beads was found around one wrist. The custom of
painting extended bodies with haematite is also seen in wooden box burials from Niah Cave
in Borneo. The earliest date for these box burials is 3800 BC.
Oppenheimer adds that the grotesque figurines found in the graves in Ur are still
being carved in wood along the north coast of New Guinea.
The two forms, tattooing and scarification, are related to skin colour. Tattooing
requires a fairer skin for the colour contrast on which tattooing patterns depend,
but scarification, based on patterned scar tissue, does not depend for effect on skin
colour. There are 19th century European accounts of scarification in New Zealand
practised by Maori women at their husbands’ funerals, collected by Elsdon Best
[23]. And Best mentions a traditional account of scarification practised by Kupe’s
daughters, Mohuia and Tokahaero, who lacerated themselves, sorrowing over their