Tanimbar

The Tanimbarese are the mixed Austronesian and Melanesian people of the Tanimbar Islands between the Banda and Arafura seas, of which Yamdena, home of the Sangliat Dol site, is the largest; their name means 'stranded' in the Yamdena and Fordata tongues. They preserve a megalithic tradition: at Sangliat Dol an ancient stone stairway climbs from the beach to a boat-shaped stone platform, representing the boats that carried their ancestors to the islands.

Portuguese navigators including Martim Afonso de Melo sighted and possibly visited the islands around 1522-1525, and they appeared on Portuguese and Dutch maps from the later sixteenth century. The islands then passed into the Dutch East India Company's sphere in Maluku, their villagers supplying copra, tortoiseshell and trepang to regional traders.