The History of Archaeological Sites: How it all began in Borneo

INTRODUCTION

Archaeological sites are important especially in Borneo because we can see that the prehistoric places and the significant archaeological evidence. A long year ago the archaeologist finds a site to do exploration and excavation of the caves of the most part in Borneo which is related in Sabah and Sarawak. The beginning of excavation in Sabah was one of the time archaeologists discovered the Tingkayu Valley and Mansuli Valley, Sabah that revealed an early stone age element. In Sarawak, Tom Harrison have found “ The River Delta ” which is along the way of Santubong that were began the first site of archaeology are found and the evidence of the prehistory, attract them to explore more about the site. In Borneo, the site of archaeology readily identifiable are those in limestone caves. Such cave is, however, overall, less numerous and certain much more localized in Borneo than in other areas of Southeast Asia (Harrisson, 1970). Furthermore, each archaeology site is also can visible on how the human in that times do their daily activity whether in getting food, archaeologist can also observe what tool that they used and or how they interact with each other in their daily life and every site also have their own timeframe that can be estimate by using a specific tool. Besides that, the site of archaeology also shows that the beginning of Paleolithic and Neolithic era.

TINGKAYU VALLEY, KUNAK, SABAH

The Tingkayu Valley is one of the archeological sites located 474 km from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The historic archeological site in the Tingkayu Valley is Sabah's oldest human activity site. The Tingkayu Valley is also one of the Pre-History sites that brought the first human existence and became symbolic to the Kunak people. Pre-history of the Tingkayu Valley dates to 28,000 years ago based on the existence of ancient lakes (Bellwood 1988). The ancient lake is said to have formed from the Tingkayu-Binuang river, which is eroded by lava flows from the Mostyn volcano. As a result of the settlement of the dam, the existence of this ancient lake began about 28,000 years ago. At present, it is said that the Paleolithic peoples lived and adapted to the shores of the ancient lake about 28,000 years ago. The Palaeolithic in Sabah began about 27,000 to 22,000 years ago based on a systematic and scientific study of archeological sites in the Tingkayu Valley in 1988. The Tingkayu Valley is one of the sites that archaeologists have proven to be an ancient human activity for 30,000 years before AD. Archaeologists have also shown that ancient human travels, some 40,000 years ago and archaeological finds showing that the Tingkayu area was inhabited by humans 30,000 years ago, are reasonable to assume that the Tingkayu people came from groups that continued south from the Mediterranean. In the field of culture, the Tingkayu area is said to be 12,000 years ago. This indicates that the Tingkayu open site is the last open stone workshop site in the Tingkayu Valley (Abdullah, Saidin, & Molijol, 2017).

MANSULI VALLEY, LAHAD DATU, SABAH

One of the archaeological sites in Sabah is Mansuli Valley that located in Lahad Datu. There are two sites at Mansuli Valley which is open-air site and cave site also known as Samang Buat Cave. Mansuli Valley is a new archaeological site in Sabah that has been carried out for archaeological studied. Mansuli Valley is a site that provided an important history evidence of Palaeolithic sites in the valley was inhabited as early 235 000 until 11 000 years ago. The recent archaeological research by Universiti Sains Malaysia and the Sabah Museum at Mansuli in Lahad Datu has produces a new radiocarbon age of the site, being 235 000 years (Abdullah, 2013). In 2013, the first survey of Mansuli Valley has been conducted with collaboration between Archaeological Department, Sabah Museum. The survey is undertaken at Samang Buat Cave and a trial excavation was carried out at that site. There are several stones tools that belonging to Palaeolithic are found in Mansuli Valley at the foot of the Tapadog limestones hills which is 1km from Samang Buat Cave. The stoned tools found were divided into three main types; flake tools, pebble tools and chuck tools. Based on these stone tools discovery and the discovery of the Palaeolithic tools, another trial excavation was undertaken at the open space and suggested that there is Palaeolithic at open-air site in Mansuli Valley. The stone tools at both sites are evidently of signified cognitive ability due to the presence of Palaeolithic on that times.

SANTUBONG, KUCHING, SARAWAK

Sarawak also have their own archaeological sites and one of them is Santubong that which located near Kuching. Santubong excavation was started in 1948 and found by famous British Paleontologist Mr. Harisson and his team. Santubong is the largest archaeological site in Malaysia, in comparison with Lembah Bujang in the Peninsular Malaysia. Thousands of Pottery, Porcelain, Coarse Earthenware, Glass Beads, Bangles, Gold, Stoneware and metal object were excavated. There are six main localities were systematically investigated, mostly by trench method (Cheng, 1982). The main localities that has investigated were Sungei Jaong, Bongkissam, Bukit Maras, Sungei Buah, Tanjong Kubor and Tanjong Teguk. However, every site that investigated had the best-preserved specimen. The most interesting find at Sungei Jaong expose the discovery of spread-eagled human figure, about life-size and similar in shape to some of dancers in the ‘painted cave’ at Niah and Kwangsi rock-painting. Meanwhile, at Bongkissam site have shown the greatest discovery in which the platform-like construction in stone were found in 1966. There was a small sanctuary with a ritual deposit box inside this platform which contains more than 100 various objects made of gold, as well as semi-precious stones, beads and a small sculpture and once has been a common practice in the Hindu-Buddhist tradition which believed were originated from India. At Bukit Maras, Mr. Harisson and the team found damaged stone figure of Buddha and it seems that Buddhist came early to Santubong before Islam. The archaeological remains of Santubong shows clearly that the six localities investigated were part of large seaport which had grown probably from a casual trading post to a well-established industrial centre, covering at its height an area of about ten square miles (Cheng, 1982). The pottery unearthed at Santubong may be classified into two distinct groups, the soft grey ware and the fine Chinese stoneware and porcelain.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, to many interesting sites of archaeological in Borneo and the prehistory of the evidence that have found make the site more important and the uniqueness of the archaeological site in Borneo can attract the archaeologist to discover the prehistoric tools. Other than that, every site has different evidence of the history and people will see the pattern or the age of the site following the tool or the evidence that they found.