Lot 261 D α

Literature

Cinatti, R., "Motivos artísticos Timorensese e a sua integraçäo", Lisbon, 1987, p.60.

According to the author (op. cit. p.60), the figures represent the founders of a lineage and were discovered in a sacred forest not far from Balibo under a palm leaf shelter. In one of the cross beams the lower jaws of sacrificed pigs were arranged and on a small platform above the heads of both figures were Chinese ceramic vessels.

When collected in the field the village elders insisted on the removal of the male figure’s moustache and beard and the cylindrical superstructures in order to desacrilise the figures.