Maros Regency
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Maros Regency Kabupaten Maros |
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|---|---|
| Regency | |
| Country | Indonesia |
| Province | South Sulawesi |
| Capital | Maros |
| Area | |
| • Total | 1,619.12 km2 (625.15 sq mi) |
| Population (2010 Census) | |
| • Total | 318,238 |
| • Density | 200/km2 (510/sq mi) |
| Time zone | WITA (UTC+8) |
Maros Regency is a regency of South Sulawesi province of Indonesia. Almost all of the regency lies within the official metropolitan area of the city of Makassar. The capital town of the regency is Maros.
Maros regency is divided into fourteen districts (Kecamatan), tabulated below with their 2010 Census population.
Twelve of the fourteen districts tabulated above lie within the official metropolitan area of the city of Makassar; the remaining two districts (Camba and Mallawa) lie outside that area.
Important examples of rock art exist in the Maros regency. At the Leang Petta Kere cave for example, in the Bantimurung district (kecamatan) about 30 km to the north of Makassar, there are a number of red-and-white hand prints of animals and hands. The images were made by blowing red pigment around hands that were pressed on the surface of the rocks. These handprints are often accompanied by fruit-eating, pig-deer looking animals called babirusas. A total of 12 images were found on the walls of seven different caves in the area. The sites have been submitted to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative list for possible inclusion.
The main site of the rock art is in seven caves around 40–60 km north east of Makassar. The oldest is a hand stencil located in Timpuseng cave with an estimated age of over 39,000 years. It is accompanied by a depiction of a female babirusa, from about 35,000 years ago. The panel where the art can be found is located 4 meters above the cave floor and 8 meters from the entrance.
The rock art in the caves was originally discovered in the 1950s by a Dutch archaeologist, H. R. van Heekeren, but at the time, was not regarded as being especially significant. More recently, analysis of the pictures by an Australian-Indonesian team suggests that a number of the markings are over 30,000 years old. They were looking at mineral layers that were covering the images, and tracing the amount of radioactive uranium in them. This technique did not give an exact date, but it narrowed down the time when the images were possibly painted. The work suggests that early settlers in Asia were creating their own artwork at the same time, or even earlier, than artwork of this kind was being created in Europe.
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