The Niah Cave Project: The Fourth (2003) Season of Fieldwork
|
THE SARAWAK MUSEUM JOURNAL |
|
Title :
The Niah Cave Project: The Fourth (2003) Season of Fieldwork. |
|
Author :
Graeme Barker, Huw Barton, Michael Bird, Franca Cole, Patrick Daly, Alan Dykes, Lucy Farr, David Gilbertson, Tom Fligham, Chris Hunt, Stephanie Knight, Edmund Kurui, Helen Lewis, Lindsay Lloyd-Smith, Jessica Manser, Sue McLaren, Francesco Menotti, Phil Piper, Brian Pyatt, Ryan Rabett, Tim Reynolds, Jonathon Shimmin, GiU Thompson, and Mark Trickett |
|
Abstract:
The paper describes the preliminary results of the fourth (2003) campaign of fieldwork by the Niah Cave Project. The principal focus of the geomorphological work, in concert with detailed studies of the Harrissons’ excavation archive prior to the field season, was on correlating the stratigraphies established by the project with the spit sequences of the Harrissons’ excavations in the West Mouth. This work was completed in detail for the Hell Trench, and at a more general level for the large area of sediment removed by the earlier excavators from within and in front (south) of the rock shelter, the so-called ‘frequentation’or ‘habitation’ zone, identified as correlating with our late Pleistocene/early Holocene Unit 4. Further smdies were undertaken of the interior guano, both for palaeoenvironmental analysis and also of its geotechnical properties to inform understanding of the environmental conditions in which a major guano mudflow (Unit 3) impacted on the West Mouth archaeologicalzone r.38-42,000 BP. The archaeological programme concentrated on three major tasks: the excavation of a deep sounding in the Hell Trench to establish when human activity began in the cave; further excavations in the ‘NeoUthic’ cemeteryzone to establish dateable sequences of burials, and to investigate the sediments underlying the burials; and investigations of the nature and scale of the remaining archaeology in other cave mouths (Lobang Angus, Gan Kira, and Kain Hitam) along with the production of accurate topographic surveys of these entrances. The first part of this programme found enigmatic evidence of human presence prior to the main sequence of (seasonal?) visits to the West Mouth that dates to the time of the deposition of the Deep Skull c.43,000 BP and immediately beforehand (the sequence reported in SMJ 2002). The new evidence remains to be dated. The cemetery excavations found a complex sequence of intercutting burials, with clear evidence for zoning of burial types, overlying guano in which were cut large round intercutting pits very similar to those found in previousseasons in Area B (thearea between the cemetery and the Hell Trench) that have been dated to c.29,000 BP.
|
| DOI: XXXX |
|
How to cite:
Graeme Barker et. al. (2003). The Niah Cave Project: The Fourth (2003) Season of Fieldwork. The Sarawak Museum Journal, LVIII (79): 45-120 |
|
References
|
