LATE PLEISTOCENE ENVIRONMENTS OF EARLY HOMO SAPIENS OCCUPATION OF THE GREAT CAVE OF NIAH, MALAYSIAN BORNEO

The Great Cave of Niah is situated in the humid tropics of S.E. Asia and is one of the major archaeological sites in the region with the discovery of a Homo sapiens skull in the 1950s by Tom Harrisson from deposits ¹⁴C charcoal-dated to c. 40 ka BP. The sedimentary record in the Great Cave of Niah provides an excellent archive for human habitat and palaeoclimate which are the main focus of this research. Detailed descriptions and micromorphological investigations of the cave sediments have helped identify four Late Pleistocene units, all of which are dominated by bat and bird guano. The specific sediments associated with the most ancient human remains indicate a fluvial environment with periodic pond development and episodic desiccation. This is supported by micromorphological evidence with the presence of wet-dry crustal features, phosphate clay translocation through shrinkage cracks, and diagenetic gypsum growths. The deposit containing the ancient human remains also exhibits micro-deformation structures caused by the lateral impact of a lobate mudflow. Micromorphology provides evidence for human occupation in the form of charcoal, woodash and bone fragments. O and C stable isotopes, calibrated against modern analogue material, have been used to estimate palaeoprecipitation and palaeomonsoon strength, and show greater seasonality for the climate, with lesser biomass and precipitation than present. The c. 40 ka skull deposit date has been provisionally confirmed by recent AMS ¹⁴C dating (Barker et al., 2001) and this age has been confirmed by OSL dating of the cave sediments.