Early Human Settlements

Niah's important was first realised in 1957. The curator of the Sarawak Museum, Tom harrison, led an archeological dig at the West Mouth of the Great Cave. The exavations revealed plenty of human settlements in the area; tools, cooking utensils and and ornaments, made of bone, stone or clay. The types of items found suggested a long period of settlement reaching back into the palaeolithic era (the earlist part of the stone age).

In 1958, a discovery was made which confirmed Niah's place as a site of major archaeological significance. Harrisson and his team unearthed a skull which was estimated to be 40,000 years old. The find was at first rediculed by the scientific community, for it was the skull of a modern human (homo sapiens), and it was widely believed that  Borneo was settled much later. However, as dating techniques improved and as more evidence of the settlement of Southeast Asia and Australasia came to light, Harrissson was proved right.

What is most interesting about Niah, however is the continued human presence over tens of thousands of years and sophistication of societies that gradually developed there. A large burial site further into the mouth of the cave had clearly been used from palaeolithic times right up to the modern era, as  late as 1400 Ad. The earlist graves found in the deepest levels, were simple shallow graves without adornment. Yet moving up through the layer, coffins and urns appeared along with grave goods such as pottery, textiles and ornaments and even glass and metal items, which came comparatively late to Borneo.

The Great cave is not only important archaeological site. The painted Cave as its name suggests, houses detailed wall-paintings depicting the boat journey of the dead into the afterlife. The meaning of the paintings was explained by the discovery of a number of "deadth-ships" on the cave floor-boat shaped coffins containing the remains of the deceased and a selection of grave-goods considered useful in the afterlife, such as Chinese ceramics, ornaments and glass beads. The death-ships have been dated as ranging between 1 AD and 780 AD, although local Penan folklore tells of the use of dead-ship burials as late as the 19th century.