Reclassification of Later Prehistoric Burials in the West Mouth of Niah Cave


 

THE SARAWAK MUSEUM JOURNAL
VOL LXVIII NO.89 DECEMBER 2011
 
 
Title : 
Reclassification of Later Prehistoric Burials in the West Mouth of Niah Cave
Author : 
Lindsay Lloyd-Smith
Abstract:
The West Mouth of Niah Cave, Sarawak (Fig. 1), contained one of the largest and most varied collections of later prehistoric burials in Southeast Asia dating to between 12000 and 2000 years ago (B. Harrisson, 1967 ). Recent research has confirmed the date range of burial at the site, with 25 burials thought to date to sometime between 12,000 and 7500 years ago, and a Neolithic cemetery with over 200 burials dating to between c.3500 and 2200 years ago (Lloyd-Smith, 2009). The site provides a valuable baseline from which to make comparative studies of other prehistoric cemeteries in the region. Barbara Harrisson’s classification of the Niah burials is a commendable achievement and clearly demonstrates her keen powers of field observation as well as her informed ideas on organising the complex and varied burial data. However, even at the time of publication the original classification did not include a all burials exposed by the end of the 1967 excavations. Burials up to B200A are listed; beyond these, flexed burial B205 is mentioned in the text (B. Harrisson, 1967; 136), and from the Harrisson Excavation Archives in the Sarawak Museum it is evident that burial numbers up to 209 were allocated by the close of the excavation. Furthermore, eleven burials were exposed by Zuraina Majid in 1977 (Zuraina Majid, 1982: 42), and the Niah Caves Project investigated 19 burials, (Barker et al., 2001, 2002a, 2003), some previously exposed and others which were new discoveries.
DOI:
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How to cite:
Lindsay Lloyd-Smith. (2011). Reclassification of Later Prehistoric Burials in the West Mouth of Niah Cave. The Sarawak Museum Journal, LXVIII (89) : 53-152
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