Early Holocene Burial Practice at Niah Cave, Sarawak

Abstract

The West Mouth of Niah Cave, Sarawak, contains one of the largest series of stratified prehistoric burials in Southeast Asia. Initial classification grouped up to 39 burials as 'Mesolithic' or pre-Neolithic (B. Harrisson 1967), including 'flexed', 'seated' and 'mutilation' burials, and subsequent radiocarbon dates on human bone produced a date range for these burials of 15,121-5659 cal. BC (Brooks et al. 1977;T. Harrisson 1975). However, due to the technical infancy in dating bone samples at that time, these dates are now generally discredited (Spriggs 1989). In light of renewed investigation of cave stratigraphy and new radiocarbon dates, this paper reviews the classification and date range of early Holocene burials at Niah Cave. The spatial and temporal patterning in burial practice at the site is discussed and compared to the regional data. It is proposed that the commencement of discrete burial in the early Holocene forms a horizon across the Indo-Malay Archipelago which reflects a broad cultural shift in the perception of dead and cultural attitudes to their appropriate treatment, one result of which was the creation of tangible ancestral identities. Early Holocene burial practice was varied both at a local and regional level, including primary as well as secondary burial. One widespread element is the use of fire, either represented as fully cremated remains or physically present within the grave structure itself.

Shell tool technology in Island Southeast Asia: an early Middle HoloceneTridacnaadze from Ilin Island, Mindoro, Philippines

“…Within this region, the only site to have produced edge-ground stone artefacts is Sa’gung rockshelter in central Palawan (Kress 2004). Although undated, the Sa’gung implements were associated with tightly flexed burials, a technique of interment common across the Sunda Shelf region of Island Southeast Asia in the Early to Middle Holocene (see Lloyd-Smith 2012).…”

“…Others have advocated ‘interaction spheres’ across Southeast Asia, developing in the Late Pleistocene and expanding through the Holocene (see Solheim 2006; Soares et al 2008; Rabett & Piper 2012). This included the emergence and spread of new belief systems, burial rites and modes of treating the dead (Lloyd-Smith 2012). Bulbeck (2008) identified the distribution of shell adze technologies from the southern Philippines to the Moluccas as one potential line of evidence supporting inter-island communication.…”

Early Metal Age interactions in Island Southeast Asia and Oceania: jar burials from Aru Manara, northern Moluccas

“…In Taiwan, Southeast Asia and Oceania, the jar burial tradition commenced during the Neolithic, with the earliest occurrences in southern Taiwan dating to about 4000 BP (Tsang et al 2006; Tsang & Li 2015). The distribution includes many coastal sites in central Vietnam (Yamagata 2012), Taiwan (Hung & Ho 2006; Hung et al 2013), the Philippines (Fox 1970; Bellwood & Dizon 2013) and Borneo (Lloyd-Smith 2009; Lloyd-Smith & Cole 2010), dating mostly to between 3500 and 2700 BP. Jar burials in Indonesia are thought to have been slightly later, mainly during the Metal Age (Ardika & Bellwood 1991; Santoso 1995; Bellwood 2007; Calo et al 2015).…”

“…Jar burials encompass several variations across Southeast Asia and Oceania, including primary and secondary interment within the jars, head removal and other kinds of body manipulation. In the West Mouth cemetery in the Niah Caves (N=170 burials) in Sarawak and at Pain Haka on Flores (N=48 burials), primary and secondary burials occurred in varying bodily positions (Lloyd-Smith 2009; Galipaud et al 2016). For primary burials, flexed or extended positions seem to have been the most popular during the Neolithic, whereas fragmentary or secondary burials in shallow or surface deposits in caves and rockshelters increased in number during the Metal Age, especially in eastern Indonesia.…”

Burial traditions in early Mid-Holocene Island Southeast Asia: new evidence from Bubog-1, Ilin Island, Mindoro Occidental

“…There were also secondary inhumations, cremations and a complex rite involving the seating of the corpse on a fire. Clear spatial organisation of the layout of burials was also evident, suggesting group or familial segregation (Lloyd-Smith 2012). There are three reliable direct radiocarbon dates on bone collagen (Rabett et al .…”