Comments on Nik Hassan Nik Abdul Rahman’s article in MB 80(1
This is a comment and rejoinder exchange in JMBRAS Vol. 80 (2), 2007, in which Wilhelm G. Solheim II critiques Nik Hassan Shuhaimi Nik Abdul Rahman’s article “Current Issues on Prehistory and Protohistory in Malaysian Archaeology” (JMBRAS 80, Part I, 2007), followed by Nik Hassan’s response.
Summary
Solheim argues that Nik Hassan’s article suffers from a lack of access to key Southeast Asian archaeological journals—specifically Asian Perspectives and the Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association—which he attributes to the library holdings of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. He provides a detailed list of relevant publications from Asian Perspectives (Volumes I–XXV) covering Borneo and Malaysia that were omitted from Nik Hassan’s article, and cites John Miksic’s 2006 BIPPA article on Chinese ceramics in Singapore as an example of useful work on Malaysian-related material culture. Solheim concludes that a thorough, up-to-date treatment of Malaysian archaeology would require an article at least twice the length of the one published (p. 104).
In his rejoinder, Nik Hassan defends his article as a synthesis of “current views on various aspects of the old issues” rather than a comprehensive survey of Malaysian archaeology. He notes that his submitted essay was cut to half its original length for publication, that the pre-war sources Solheim recommends are outdated, and that the majority of Malaysian excavation reports are published in Malay-language venues such as Jurnal Arkeologi Malaysia and PURBA, which Solheim may not have consulted (p. 104).