Gua Niah - Painted Cave archaeological site

Niah National Park, located within

Miri Division Miri Division is one of the twelve administrative divisions of Sarawak, Malaysia. It has a total area of 26,777.1 square kilometres, and is the second largest division after Kapit Division. The seat of this division is the city of Miri. The pop ...

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the Malaysian state of Sabah to the northeast, ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Mal ...

, is the site of the Niah Caves

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

cave and archeological site.

History

Alfred Russel Wallace Alfred Russel Wallace (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was a British natural history, naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution thro ...

lived for 8 months at

Simunjan District The Simunjan District is a district in the Samarahan Division of Sarawak, Malaysia, located between Serian and Sri Aman. It borders Sebuyau and Samarahan and lies approximately east-south-east of the state capital Kuching. Most of its i ...

with a mining engineer, Robert Coulson, who had explored what is now northern Sarawak for mineral ores. Coulson later wrote to Wallace about finding bones in a number of caves in Sarawak. On further enquiry, Wallace learned that one cave in question "was situated in the district between Sarawak and Bruni (

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely surrounded by th ...

), on a mountain some distance inland." In March 1864, Wallace favoured Coulson to explore the caves. However, later in May 1864, G. J. Ricketts, a British Consul to Sarawak was appointed to undertake the work. Ricketts did not remain in the post for long and subsequently

Alfred Hart Everett Alfred Hart Everett (11 October 1848 – 18 June 1898) was a British civil servant and administrator in Borneo as well as being a naturalist and natural history collector. Career Everett was born on Norfolk Island to British parents: George, the ...

was chosen to undertake the work. Everett surveyed 32 caves in three areas, including Niah/Subis (near

Miri ) , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_name1 = , subdivision_type2 = Division , subdivision_name2 ...

) and "Upper Sarawak Proper" (to the south of Kuching). In the 1950s,

Tom Harrisson Major Tom Harnett Harrisson, DSO OBE (26 September 1911 – 16 January 1976) was a British polymath. In the course of his life he was an ornithologist, explorer, journalist, broadcaster, soldier, guerrilla, ethnologist, museum curator, archaeo ...

, the curator of

Sarawak State Museum The Sarawak State Museum ( ms, Muzium Negeri Sarawak) is the oldest museum in Borneo. It was founded in 1888 and opened in 1891 in a purpose-built building in Kuching, Sarawak. It has been said that naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace encouraged C ...

was searching for evidence of ancient human activity in Sarawak. He came across Niah Cave, which showed no evidence of ancient human activity in the area. However, he inferred that since the cave was cool and dry and there were millions of bats and swiflets which can used as food, ancient humans could have lived in the cave. Therefore, in October 1954, Harrisson with his two friends, Michael Tweedie and Hugh Gibb spent two weeks examining the Niah. They found evidence of long term human occupation, habitation, and burial. In 1957, the Sarawak museum organised a larger expedition with transport and equipment from Brunei Shell Petroleum and Sarawak Oilfields Ltd (Shell). Eathernware, shell scrapers, shell ornaments, stone pounders, bone tools, and food remains were found.

Radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was de ...

of the charcoal layers put the site at 40,000 years old, dating back to the

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός '' palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

era. The expedition team led by

Barbara Harrisson Barbara Harrisson (born ''Barbara Veronika Gertrud Maria Elisabeth Güttler'', in February 1958. It is a partial skull with

maxilla The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. T ...

, two molar teeth and a portion of the base of the skull. The skull is highly fragile and is not fossilised. The morphology of the skull is suggestive of belonging to a female in her late teens to mid-twenties. Near the skull, a complete left femur and right proximal tibia were found which belongs to the same individual. Tom Harrisson also discovered Neolithic burial sites from 2,500 to 5,000 years ago. The discoveries led to more expeditions in 1959, 1965, and 1972. In 1960, Don Brothwell concluded that the Deep Skull belonged to an adolescent male who may be closely related to an indigenous Australian from

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

. In the 1960s, 122 human remains from Niah were brough to

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

, United States. There is lack of

paleogeography Palaeogeography (or paleogeography) is the study of historical geography, generally physical landscapes. Palaeogeography can also include the study of human or cultural environments. When the focus is specifically on landforms, the term pal ...

stratigraphy Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers ( strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithost ...

, and archeological relationships to support Tom Harrisson's work. Therefore, more fieldwork was conducted by

University of Leicester , mottoeng = So that they may have life , established = , type = public research university , endowment = £20.0 million , budget = £326 million , chancellor = David Willetts , vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah , head_lab ...

, in collaboration with other universities from Britain, Australia, United States and

from 2000 to 2003 to establish a more detailed history of Niah Caves. It was known as the "Niah Cave Project". Another dating of the charcoal and the Deep Skull itself was done in 2000. It showed that the age of the skeleton to be 37,000 years old. In 2006, studies from the Niah Cave Project found out that the ancient humans living in the Niah Caves probably already used mammal and fish trapping technologies, projectile technology,

tuber Tubers are a type of enlarged structure used as storage organs for nutrients in some plants. They are used for the plant's perennation (survival of the winter or dry months), to provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing ...

digging, plant detoxification, and forest burning. In 2013 to 2014,

uranium–thorium dating Uranium–thorium dating, also called thorium-230 dating, uranium-series disequilibrium dating or uranium-series dating, is a radiometric dating technique established in the 1960s which has been used since the 1970s to determine the age of calciu ...

also confirmed the age of the skull. In 2016, another research done by Darren Curnoe noted that the Deep Skull was more resembling of a female adolescent and is more closely resembling the indigenous people of Borneo rather than Tasmanians or the two layer hypothesis which stated that original population of

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

were emigrated from Australia and later integrated with people from China. In 2010, 2019, and 2022, the Sarawak state government nominated the park for an

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

title. In 2020, all the 122 pieces of Niah human remains were returned to Sarawak.

Geography

Niah Caves is located on the northern edge of a limestone mountain named ''Gunung Subis'' (Mount Subis). The entrance is located at the west mouth of the cave. The location is 15 km from the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Ph ...

and 50 m above sea level. The west mouth of the Niah Caves is 150 m wide and 75 m high.

Archaeology

The cave is an important prehistorical site where human remains from 40,000 years ago have been found."The Great Cave of Niah"
by Huw Barton This is the oldest recorded human settlement in east Malaysia. More recent studies published in 2006 have shown evidence of the first human activity at the Niah caves from ca. 46,000 to 34,000 years ago. Painted Cave, situated in a much smaller limestone block of its own, some 150 metres from the Great Cave block's south eastern tip, has rock paintings dated as 1,200 years old. Archeologists have claimed a much earlier date for stone tools found in the Mansuli valley, near

Lahad Datu Lahad Datu ( ms, Bandar Lahad Datu) is the capital of the Lahad Datu District in the Dent Peninsula on Tawau Division of Sabah, Malaysia. Its population was estimated to be around 27,887 in 2010. The town is surrounded by stretches of cocoa an ...

Sabah Sabah () is a state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indonesia to the south. The Federal Territory ...

, but precise dating analysis has not yet been published. Items found at Niah Cave include Pleistocene chopping tools and flakes, Neolithic axes, adzes, pottery, shell jewellery, boats, mats, then iron tools and ceramics and glass beads dating to the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...

. The most famous find is the human skull dated at around 38,000 years BCE.The Niah Cave Project
at the University of Leicester. Painted Cave has paintings and wooden coffin 'death ships'. Between 1954 and 1966, approximately 750,000 fragments of animal bones were excavated here. One of them was identified as the

metacarpal bone In human anatomy, the metacarpal bones or metacarpus form the intermediate part of the skeletal hand located between the phalanges of the fingers and the carpal bones of the wrist, which forms the connection to the forearm. The metacarpal bones ar ...

of a young

tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living Felidae, cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily pr ...

Vegetation

Pearce (2004) recognises six vegetation types: Limestone vegetation on karst. Mixed Dipterocarp Forest. Seasonal Swamp Forest on clayey marl soils. Seasonal Swamp Forest on peat soils. Riparian Forest. Regenerating Forest.

Current activities

The caves are also well known for the bird's nest industry. They are a popular tourist destination in Sarawak. Every section of the ceiling in the caves where there are

swiftlet Swiftlets are birds contained within the four genus, genera ''Aerodramus'', ''Hydrochous'', ''Schoutedenapus'' and ''Collocalia''. They form the Collocaliini tribe (biology), tribe within the Swift (bird), swift family Apodidae. The group contain ...

s roosting is privately owned and only the owner has the right to collect the nests. Collection is done half-yearly (usually in January and in June). The collector climbs up hundreds of feet on a single pole to the cave ceiling and scrapes off the nest in flickering candlelight.

Gallery

Cane Reed (Cheilocostus speciosus) bracts (14256204522).jpg, Cane Reed Entrance of Traders' Cave (15482316960).jpg, Traders' Cave Forest on limestone formations (15474678598).jpg, Forest on limestone formations The Great Cave (15047958943).jpg, The Great Cave Niah Cave.jpg, Inside of Niah Cave

References

External links

Tourism Malaysia - Niah National Park
* A shor
description
of the caves as a touristic destination.
Summary
of the article "A short history of birds' nests management in the Niah caves (Sarawak)." by Quentin Gausset from the "Borneo Research Bulletin" published in 2002.

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070901014917/http://borneoproject.org/article.php?id=64 Article with a picture of some paintings and death ships.
Picture
of some cave paintings. {{authority control Miri Division Caves of Sarawak Limestone caves Wild caves Archaeological sites in Malaysia National parks of Sarawak