17,000 years old artefacts found in Malaysian caves

The National Heritage Department has found more than 100 Palaeolithic artefacts estimated to be 17,000 years old in several caves in Gunung Pulai here.

The artefacts include stone tools, fragments of pottery and river snails
[Credit: Bernama]

Artefacts in the form of stone tools, fragments of pottery and river snails were found at new excavation sites including Gua Kelambu, Gua Tembus and Gua Akar in the mountain.

National Heritage Department director-general Mesran Mohd Yusop, who is also the Heritage Commissioner, said the artefacts were discovered while his department was conducting explorations in the area between April and October last year.

"The exploration was to carry out documentation and inventory of the site to obtain the latest archaeological data and to identify any possible evidence that has not been discovered by previous researchers.

"The discovery of the artefacts proves the existence of prehistoric life in this area and gives us new clues about the lives of these early inhabitants," he told local reporters.

National Heritage Department Archaeological Division director Ruzairy Arbi
in the caves on Gunung Pulai in Baling [Credit: Bernama]

Mesran said excavations and research at the site were also joined by the Institute of the Malay World and Civilization (Atma), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Universiti Malaya's (UM) Geology Department.

He said some of the artefacts found were sent to Nanyang Technological University in Singapore for analysis and to determine their age.

According to him, if the artefacts are truly 17,000 years old, it means that the settlement on Gunung Pulai is among the oldest in the country and is older than the Sungai Batu archaeological site in Merbok.

He also explained that the discovery made Gunung Pulai a valuable archaeological site for the country's archaeological data and as a basis for recognising the origins of the ancient community.

Some of the artefacts discovered in the caves on Gunung Pulai in Baling
[Credit: Bernama]

"It also has the potential to make the area famous and make Gunung Pulai and its caves a focal point for tourists, researchers and archaeologists," he said.

Meanwhile, the department's Archaeological Division director Ruzairy Arbi said the discovery of stone tools showed that the Palaeolithic community here used rock extensively for hunting and food storage purposes.

However, the discovery of river limpets is considered to be most important as it is evidence of dietary practices of prehistoric peoples there.

"All of these artefacts were found on the ground of the caves and we believe more artefacts are buried and we will be mapping and digging within the next month to find other artefacts," he said.

In the meantime, the department is advising the public to comply with the National Heritage Act 2005 by reporting immediately any historic findings in the Gunung Pulai area to the district officer or Heritage Commissioner.

Source: Bernama [January 23, 2020]

Ancient statue found in Cambodia's Siem Reap

Siem Reap Provincial Environment Department officials and archaeologists are conducting research on a large Makara animal statue carved on a rock at the Phnom Kulen National Park in Siem Reap province’s Svay Loeu district.

Credit: Khmer Times

Provincial Department of Environment director Sun Kong said yesterday the head portion of the broken statue was found by a resident on Saturday and the officials went to inspect the site on Sunday.

He added that the statue was made of sandstone during the sixth century and the body was broken into pieces, noting that officials found 13 pieces of the body nearby the site.

Credit: Khmer Times

Mr Kong said: “According to the experts, this Makara animal statue is one that we have never seen before. It is approximately 2.14 metres in length and about 0.97 metres high. We have not yet moved the body parts or excavated the head from the site and have told park rangers in the area to guard it in order for officials from relevant ministries and institutions to come and study in detail about the site’s history and reconstruct the pieces.”

He noted that experts have not found a foundation of any temple at the site and believe it was just carved out on the rock.

Credit: Khmer Times

Chhim Samrithy, 38, a craftsman from the province who discovered the statue, said yesterday he spotted it on Saturday while searching for bamboo. “I usually walk in the forest to look for some unique and sacred objects and suddenly spotted this rare statue,” he said. “After seeing it, I took environmental officials and archaeologists to the site and also helped to find some of the missing pieces of the statue.”

Long Kosal, Apsara Authority spokesman, said that the authorities’ archaeologists visited the site yesterday and will conduct additional studies to add it to the records.

Credit: Khmer Times

He said: “The Kulen National Park area is rich in ancient artefects, both above and below the ground. Therefore,  I urge people, especially those living in the area, to avoid excavating or clearing archaeological sites. If they find ancient objects, please report to the authorities for research to be done to preserve them for future generations.”

Author: Pech Sotheary | Source: Khmer Times [January 23, 2020]

A chronicle of giant straight-tusked elephants

About 800,000 years ago, the giant straight-tusked elephant Palaeoloxodon migrated out of Africa and became widespread across Europe and Asia.

Reconstructed life appearance of the extinct European straight-tusked elephant Palaeoloxodon antiquus
in (top) side and (bottom) frontal view, based on remains uncovered from the Neumark-Nord 1 site
 in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany [Credit: Hsu Shu-yu]

It divided into many species, with distinct types in Japan, Central Asia and Europe -- even some dwarf forms as large as a small donkey on some Mediterranean islands.

In a new study by scientists in Spain, Italy and the UK, including University of Bristol PhD student Hanwen Zhang, published in the journal, Quaternary Science Reviews, some order has been brought into our understanding of all these species.

The most intriguing feature of the straight-tusked elephant, apart from its absolutely enormous size, is the massive, headband-like crest on the skull roof which projects down the forehead. When the celebrated Victorian Scottish geologist Hugh Falconer studied the first fossil skull of Palaeoloxodon found in India, he remarked that the head seemed 'so grotesquely constructed that it looks the caricature of an elephant's head in a periwig'.

For a long time, palaeontologists thought that the European species, Palaeoloxodon antiquus, had a rather slenderly built skull roof crest; whereas the Indian species Palaeoloxodon namadicus, is characterised by an extremely robust skull crest that extends near to the base of the trunk from the top of the skull.

But some Palaeoloxodon skulls, found in Italy and Germany, with almost the same exaggerated skull crest as the Indian form, led a few experts into suspecting these might all be single species.

Hanwen Zhang, who is based in Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, said: "Just like modern elephants, Palaeoloxodon went through six sets of teeth in their lifetimes. This means we can tell the age of any individual with confidence by looking at its fossilised teeth.

"When we looked at a series of skulls from Italy, Germany and India, we found a consistent pattern: the skull crest developed from being very small, not protruding beyond the forehead in juveniles to being larger and more protruding in young adults, eventually becoming very stout in aged adults."

The study's lead author, Asier Larramendi, an independent researcher from Spain, added: "As I plotted various skull and limb bone measurements for these incredible prehistoric elephants, it became clear that the Indian Palaeoloxodon form a distinct group from the European ones; even in European skulls with quite pronounced crests, the skull roof never becomes as thickened as in the Indian specimens.

"This tells us we once had two separate species of these enormous elephants in Europe and India.

"Besides the funky skull roof crest, the head of the straight-tusked elephant is also remarkable for being huge, the largest of any elephant ever - some 4.5 feet from the top of the skull roof to the base of the tusk sheaths!

"Therefore, the skull crest probably evolved to provide additional attachment areas for extra neck muscles, so the animal did not fall on its head."

Hanwen Zhang said: "Having gotten to the bottom of the antiquus/namadicus problem, it then became apparent that other fossil skull materials found in Asia and East Africa represent distinct, possibly more evolutionarily conservative species of Palaeoloxodon.

"Even in fully mature adults with the last set of teeth in place, the skull roof crest remains comparatively unpronounced. This is the case with the earliest Palaeoloxodon from Africa, some Asian species retained this condition."

Source: University of Bristol [January 21, 2020]