Recent archaeological discoveries in Malaysia 1962–1963: Borneo,
Barbara Harrisson and B. A. V. Peacock published this annual report in 1964, summarising the principal archaeological work undertaken in Borneo and Malaya during 1962–1963. The article’s overarching thesis is that the accumulated evidence from Niah Caves, the Sarawak River Delta, and newly investigated Kelantan rock shelters demonstrates that west Borneo and the Malay Peninsula possessed a far deeper, more complex, and more economically significant prehistory than the scholarly consensus of the time had acknowledged.
Summary
The Borneo section, written by Harrisson, is dominated by the Niah Caves programme in the Fourth Division. The 1962 season produced nearly 200,000 pieces of prehistoric material from the Painted Caves, where careful brushing of the under-soil revealed post-holes beneath the main line of red haematite murals, into which upright posts fitted precisely and upon which death-ship coffins settled, confirming the site’s function as a secondary burial ground (p. 193). Equally significant was the discovery of a polished “dancing floor” at the cave mouth, overlaid with thousands of broken sherds including delicate Yueh-wares that a Hawaii symposium had recently re-dated to a period earlier than the Tang Dynasty, alongside bronze, carved bone, and textile fragments from high grottos (pp. 193–194). Harrisson then presents a preliminary phaseology table spanning eight phases from the Late Middle Palaeolithic (c. 40,000–50,000 B.C.) to the Chalcolithic (c. 250 B.C.), and highlights the deep skull from the “Hell” section, reported by Dr. Don Brothwell of the British Museum, as the earliest provenance of Homo sapiens in South-east Asia (pp. 194–195).
The Sarawak River Delta section documents nearly forty located sites, six of which had been excavated, ranging from a “proletarian” Tang Dynasty cemetery at Tanjong Kubur to a 7th-century stone Buddha at Bukit Maras and an iron foundry at Sungei Buah (p. 196). Harrisson argues that the scale of these trading stations, peaking during the Sung and Sawankhalok dynasties (12th–14th centuries), supports the identification of west Borneo as a major node in the Golden Chersonese trade network (p. 198). The Kelabit uplands section confirms long continuous highland occupation and very old irrigated rice cultivation, with megalithic monuments post-dating the arrival of metal (pp. 197–198).
The Malaya section, compiled by Peacock, reports three significant Kelantan discoveries. Gua Chawan yielded a working floor of Hoabinhian-type bi-facially flaked core tools (34 pieces collected), suggesting the survival of a stone industry formally indistinguishable from the Hoabinhian possibly into recent historical times, challenging Sieveking’s earlier insistence that no contact between the Hoabinhian and the Malayan Neolithic could be accepted (pp. 201–203). Gua Jaya was interpreted as a pottery kiln, producing over 1,500 sherds, a hollow pottery cylinder likely functioning as a bellows nozzle, and a unique decorated clay tablet of unknown purpose (pp. 204–205). Batu Ner yielded a reconstructed bell-shaped beaker with geometric decoration comparable to Sieveking’s Gua Cha finds, and an unusual beaked quadrangular adze pecked from coarse igneous rock (p. 206).
Key Findings
- The Niah Painted Caves yielded approximately 200,000 pieces of prehistoric material in 1962 alone, with the death-ship coffins and mural post-holes confirming a secondary burial ritual complex (p. 193).
- The deep skull from the “Hell” section of the Great Cave, reported by Brothwell, is typical Homo sapiens and represents the earliest provenance of modern man in South-east Asia, challenging the assumption that sapiens originated further west (p. 194).
- Yueh-ware porcelains from the Niah dancing floor, re-dated at a Hawaii symposium to a period earlier than the Tang Dynasty, indicate high-quality Far Eastern ceramic production and trade in west Borneo at an earlier date than previously accepted (p. 193).
- Chemical analysis of Kelabit upland glass beads demonstrated over 5% lead oxide (PbO), sharply contrasting with leadless beads from the Sarawak River Delta, Kuala Selinsing, and Kakao Island, indicating a distinct source and date for the Kelabit assemblage (p. 200).
- Gua Chawan, Kelantan, produced 34 Hoabinhian-type chipped stone tools on a clearly defined working floor with a limestone revetment, suggesting the possible survival of a Hoabinhian industry into recent times and necessitating a review of Malayan prehistory (pp. 201–203).
- The Sarawak River Delta sites, peaking in the Sung and Sawankhalok periods, support the identification of south-west Borneo as a major trading centre for the whole of South-east Asia, with gold, rhinoceros horn, hornbill ivory, and edible birds’ nests as likely export commodities (p. 198).
Conclusion
Harrison’s and Peacock’s combined reporting establishes that the archaeological record of 1962–1963 fundamentally revised the perceived depth and significance of prehistoric Southeast Asia. The Niah phaseology, the early Homo sapiens skull, the re-dated Yueh-wares, and the scale of the Sarawak Delta trading stations collectively argue that west Borneo was not a peripheral backwater but a central actor in the ancient Asian economic and cultural system, while the Kelantan discoveries force a reconsideration of the relationship between the Hoabinhian and Neolithic in the Malay Peninsula.
Context
- The Niah Caves research was a long-term programme of the Sarawak Museum, with the first full-scale monograph planned for publication as a special volume of Artibus Asiae, hand-printed at Ascona, Switzerland (p. 193).
- The Malaya section was compiled by Peacock from information supplied by Harrisson, who was on leave during 1963; the principal Malayan excavation of 1962 (Gua Kechil, Pahang, by Dr. F. L. Dunn) is reported separately in the same issue of the Journal (p. 199).