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Journal of the Malayan Branch of the
Royal Asiatic Society, Volume 26, Part 2 (No. 162)
The
Sto~e
Age in Malaya
by
M. W. F. 'Tw.eedie, M.A.
Monographs on Malay Subjects, No. 1
Printed fO'r the Malayan Branch, Royal Asiatic Society, by
Malaya Publishing House, Limited.
Singapore, October, 1953
t erv; . )
CONTENTS
Volume 26, part 2, published October, 1953
(No. 162)
The Stone Age in Malaya
by
M. W. F. Tweedie, M.A.
Acknowledgemen ts
p. 4
Introduction
p. 5
The Malayan Stone Age Cultures:
The Palaeolithic
p. 9
The Hoabinhian
p. 10
The Neolithic
p. 18
Anomalous Industries
p.64
Comparison with neighbouring territories
(Appendix I)
p. 73
Summary of report on human jaw from Guak Kepah
(Appendix II)
p. 80
The excavation at Tanjong Bunga (Appendix III )
p. 84
Notes on the plates ..
p. 86
References and Bibliography
p. 87
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is the direct successor, by change of title, of the Straits Branch, R.A.S., which
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Acknowledgments
My thanks are due to a number of friends who have helped
me in preparing this paper on a subject of which I am an amateur
rather than a professiohal authority.
Foremost among them is the late Mr P. D. R. Williams
Hunt, Acting Director of the National Museum of the Federation
of Malaya. To him I am especially indebted for placing ' at my
disposal, for describing and figuring, the material in the museum
in his chan>:e.
Mr H. R. van Heekeren very kindly allowed me to extract
information from the typescript of his forthcoming account of
the Stone Age in Indonesia. The greater part of the material
summarised in Appendix I is from this source. Mr van Heekeren
aliso read my typescript and gave me helpful criticism and advice.
It also gives me pleasure to p~y a tribute to those prehistorians of whose work this paper is largely 'a summary:
Mr I. H. N. Evans, who bid the foundations of archaeological
research in Malaya, the late Dr P. V. van Stein Callenfels, whose
enthusiasm, and ready sympathy first led me to interest myself
in prehistory, a11d my former colleague Mr H . D . Collings, discoverer of the Tampanian Culture and Curator for sixteen years
of the archaeological collections in the Raffles Museum.
The drawings for the text figures have been made by
Mr Foong Kwok Mun, artist on the staff of the Raffles Museum.
My sincere thanks are due to him for his care and skill.
('
Objects figured on plates and in the text are
identified by reference to the collections where they
are housed. ' In the Raffles Museum system of registration R.M. 35.100 is a specimen collected in 1935
and the 100th to be registered in that year. Objects
coll:ected before 1934 have the chronological indication Z.
Introduction
Research in early Malayan prehistory cannot be said to have
advanced much beyond the stage of having demonstrated that a
long succession of stone cultures has existed, and that some of
these cultures are represented by very rich and varied material
remains, mainly of stone artifacts but, in the latest stages, of
pottery as weB. The chronology of the various cultures, their
relations with each other and the ethnography of the people
they represent present problems which have, in the main, yet
to be solved. The geographical situation of Malaya is such that
their solution is a matter of great importance if the history of
the early development of human cultures in Indonesia, Melanesia,
Australia ~ll1d the Pacific Islands is ever to be clearly understood.
It is highly probable that the successive prehistoric populations
of these regions originated by migration from continentali Asia,
and the Malay Peninsula affords one of the most obvious routes
for such migration.
.
. Succession of cultures. . Three main cultures can be distinguished, which are presumed to have succeeded each other in
time. As a matter of convenience the terminology of their
classification has been borrowed in part from the European
succession, but no claim is made that they are equivalent in time,
or have any but the most remote affinity, with their European
counterparts.
The Palaeolithic in Malaya is represellted by large, very
crudely worked stone tools which have been found in some
quantity in pebble and boulder deposits in the valley of the
Perak River. No fossils, human or otherwise, have been found
with them, and their age is a matter for conjecture, though their
typology suggests that they may date from Pleistocene l times.
Caves in limestone hills in the centre and north of the:
Peninsula have yielded large numbers of chipped stone implements made from river pebbles . A few of these are roughly
ground at one end, and they are accompanied by ill-preserved
human remains and remains of animals, all of forms existing
in the present fauna and indicating a geologically recent (i.e.
1
The Pleistocene is the geological period immediately preceding modern or
recent times; characterised by intermittent onsets of glaciation (represented
in the tropics by pluvial periods), it is often called the Ice Age, and is
dated from approximately one· million to approximately ten thousand years
ago.
1953] Royal Asiatic Society.
6
M.W.F. Tweedie
post-Pleistocene) date. This is the Hoabinhian1 of this paper.
and it has been called the Cave Culture, Mesolithic and Palaeolithic in some previous publications.
The Neolithic is represented in Malaya by highly finished
polished stone adzes, axes and chisels, almost always with a
quadrangular cross-section. but very diverse in shape, size and
in the way the working edge is fashioned. Associated with .these
implements is found quantities of pottery, vessels of very diverse
form but unambitious in their ornamentation and not displaying
a highly developed technique of throwing or firing. Human
burials have been found in caves and rock-shelters. which appear
to be of neolithic people.
In addition to these three main divisions, several anomalous
industries have been discovered whose affinities are difficult to
determine. These will not be itemised in this introduction, but
will be fully described in a later section.
History of research. The earliest mention of prehistoric remains
in Malaya dates from 1860, when G . W. Earl reported on the
shell-mounds of Province Wel!lesley and collected human skeletal
remains from them. He also described them in his "Topography
and Itinerary of Province Wellesley", 1861. These shell-heaps
were subsequently re-identified by I. H. N. Evans (1930F) and
excavated by officers of the Raffles Museum in 1934. Earl was
not aware of the antiquity of the shell-heaps, and described them
as "sepulchral mounds of the Simang" (Negritos).
The first record of the discovery of ancient remains in caves
was made in 1880 by Mr 1. Wray. the first curator of the Perak
Museum, at Gunong Pondok in Perak. and in 1886 he carried
out excavations at Gunong Cheroh near Ipoh. He reports land
shells and animal bones in quantity and pounding and grinding
stones. but apparently no worked stone tools were recognised . . In
1891 he found two burials at the same site and later an edgeground stone implement. His report of these discoveries, under
the title "The cave-dwellers of Perak", appeared in 1897, and a
further note was published in 1905.
The earliest published notices of neolithic stone implements
in Malaya appear to be those of J. de Morgan and Abraham Hale,
both in 1885 and both from Perak. R. M. W. Swan (1904)
described and figured neoliths from the river Tui in Pahang,
including the common quadrangular adze. a beaked adze and a
stone quoit or ring.
1
Derived from Hoabinh, situated on the Black River, 60 kilometers south.
west of Hanoi in Tonkin . French Indo-China. It is at Hoabinh that this
culture is classically developed.
Journal Malayan Branch [Vol. XXVI, Pt. II,
The Stone Age in Malaya
7
Systematic investigation of Malayan prehistory was started
by I. H. N . Evans in 1917, when he excavated in two caves at
Lenggong in Upper Perak, which yielded 'the first typical Hoabinhian implements (reported as of palaeolithic type) . Exploration
at Batu Kurau in Perak and at Gunong Senyum, Kota Tongkat
and Kota Glanggi, sites in Pahang, was done by him in the same
year. From that date until 1931 Mr Evans, who was curator of
the Perak Museum at Taiping, recorded and described numerous
mesolithic and neolithic finds, mainly in papers in the Journal
of the Federated Malay States Museums, with a summary up to
1925 in his book on Malayan ethnography and archaeology
(Evans 1927A.) These papers report several casual finds of neoliths, cave excavation in Perak and Pahang, the excavation of an
open neolithic site at Nyong on the River Tembeling in 1930
and a visit in the same year to the shell-heaps in Province
VV ellesley.
During the years 1921 to 1923 Mr G . W. Thomson collected
and presented to the Raffies Museum a fine series of Hoabinhian
type implements from tin-bearing gravels in the Kuantan district
in P:ihang. These were reported On by H. D. Collings (J 938E ) .
Some exploratory pits were dug in a rock-shelter at Gunong
Pondok, Perak, by W. M. Gordon in 1921. No report on this
excavation appeared, hut it is referred to by Callenfels and Evans
in their account (1928) of a controlled excavation of the same
In 1928 Dr. W. Linehan
site conducted in 1926 and 1927.
rel)orte(l On discoveries of neolithic artifacts from the River
TembeJ:ing, and in the same year the late Dr. P . V. van Stein
Callenfels aRpeared on the scene of Malayan prehistoric research,
when he and Evans published a joint report On cave excavations
in Perak. In 1934 officers of the Raffies Museum (the present
writer and H. D. Col1ings) excavated the Province Wellesley
shell-heaps. Dr. van Stein Callenfels assisted at this excavation
and later (1936A) published a report on it.
In the following year, and again in 1938, generous grants of
money were made to the Raffies Museum by the Carnegie Corporation of New York for prehistoric research in Malaya, and the
following programme of excavating and collecting was carried out:
1935, caves at Baling, Kedah (H. D. Collings) and near Bentong,
Pahang (M. W. F. Tweedie); 1936, caves and rock-shelters at
Bukit Chuping, Pedis (Collings) and near Sungei Siput, Perak
(Callenfels and H. D. Noone); 1938, an open site on the shore
at Tanjong Bunga, . Johore (Collings) and the discovery of a
palaeolithic culture at Kota Tampan, Perak (Collings); 1939, a
rock-shelter at Gua Madu and a cave at Gua Musang, Kelantan
(Tweedie); 1940, collecting on the River Tembeling, Pahang
(Tweedie) and a cave at Batu Kebelah on the Korhu River near
.
1953] Royal Asiatic Society .
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M.W.F. Tweedie
Jalong, Perak (H. D. Noone)!; 1941, a visit to the Tui Gold
Mine, Pahang (Tweedie).
In 1939 the lateMr H. D. Noone reported a very rich
neolithic site in VIu Kelanta.n, a rock-shelter in which he dug
some preliminary trenches, but which up to the time of writing
bas not been systematically excavated.
Since the Japanese occupation of Malaya no excavations of
stone age sites have been carried out, but several good finds
of neolithic implements and pottery have been made and recorded
by P. D .. R. Williams-Hunt, the most notable being at Tengku
Lembu in Perl is, where sherds of 5th to 4th century B.C. Greek
pottery were found with them (p. 64).
1
There is no published record of this excavation and all the material obtained
appears to have been lost at the time of the invasion of Malaya in 1942.
Journal Malayan Branch [Vol. XXVI, Pt. II,
The Malayan Stone Age Cultures
The Palaeolithic
In April 1938 Mr H. D. Collings visited Kota. Tampan Estate
near Lenggong in Upper Perak (4 on map at fig. 47) to examine.
high level river gravels underlying volcanic ash, which had been
reported by the Director of the Geological Survey, F.M.S. He
found in these gravels large heavy roughly fashioned implements.
of palaeolithic type. In August of the same year he visited the
site again, equipped for excavation, and in the course of two
months work he made a large collection from gravel and boulder
deposits at several levels on the side of the vaNey of the Perak
River. Some, at least, of the boulder beds which yielded these:
implements were overlaid by the volcanic "ash", a semi-consolidated deposit consisting of fine pumice dust and believed to have
been carried by wind from Sumatra at the time of the catastrophic
eruption which formed the enormous crater now occupied by
the Toba Lake. The eruption took place in prehistoric times:
but is believed to be not earlier than Pleistocene in date.
Mr. Collings briefly reported the discovery in "Nature'"
(1938F) but no complete account either of the typology or
occurrence of these implements has been published, though
references to the Tampan or Tampanian Culture, as it has come'
to be called, are frequent in subsequent literature on Asiatic
prehistory. Movius (1948, p. 403-4) gives a short account of it,
with photographs of five specimens, and comments on its probable'
affinities.
. The most typical implements are large choppers made by
striking several flakes off one side of the end of a pebble. Flakes
are frequent, some with traces of secondary working, and smaller
pointed tools. All are so crude and roughly fashioned as to be
recognisable as artifacts only to an experienced eye. Implements.
of similar type are known from India (early Soan), Burma
(Anyathian), China (Choukoutienian), Java (Paditanian) and Siam.
Some of these are known to be of Pleistocene age, and the
Choukoutienian is associated with the remains of Pitllecanthropus:
("Sinanthropus") pekinensis.
Positive evidence of the age of the' Tampanian industry has:
not yet come to light. No fossil remains, either animal or human,
have been found associated with them, and nothing is really'
known of the date of the Toba volcanic eruption beyond the
1953] Royal Asiatic Society.
10
M.\V.F. Tweedie
fact that it took place in remote prehistoric times. The fact
that the implements occur in gravel beds in the Perak River
valley situated well above the present level of the river bed
suggests the possibility of upward earth movement and subsequent
downward erosion since the time when they were made. There
is, however, no definite terrace formation in the valley, such as
usually accompanies this geological sequence of events. Definite
evidence that it had taken place would strongly suggest a Pleistocene age for the culture, but at present the typological similarity
of the implements to those of the cultures mentioned above,
whose Pleistocene age is established, affords the best evidence
for regarding the Tampanian as dating from that period. Two
specimens from the Raffles Museum collection are figured on
plate l.
Implements of this type have only been found in quantity
at Kota Tampan, but Collings found a few at other localities
in the Perak River valley, as far north as Grik, and WilliamsHunt (1951) reports further finds from this vicinity (p. 189), and
from near Raub in Pahang (p. 188) and a "possible" specimen
from the Jelebu District of Negri Sembilan (p. 187).
The Hoabinhian
Classically developed in Tonkin in French Indo-China, this
is the only one of the mesolithic 1 cultures that is extensively
developed in Malaya. Although conforming in general to the
pattern of its more northern counterpart, it has distinctive features
which are summarised in Appendix 1. The term Cave Culfure
has been used in the past to designate it, and in the early stages
of research the stone tools which represent it were often described
as palaeoliths.
Sites yielding material representing the Hoabinhian are
almost wholly confined to those districts in the centre and
north of the Peninsula in which precipitous hills of limestone
of Carboniferous age are found. In these hills are innumerable
caves and rock-shelters, and almost everyone of these that is
large enough to be habitable and, while reasonably accessible, is
high enough to be out of reach of floods, shows signs of habitation
by people with the Hoabinhian culture. Rock-shelters, that is
areas of ground open to daylight but sheltered from the weather
by an overhang of rock, seem to have been preferred to caves.
True caves were inhabited only in the wen lighted part near the
mouth.
Today the chief inhabitants of the caves are bats, which
roost in millions in their roofs. The accumulations of guano on
1
That is the post-glacial cultures other (and usually earlier). than those of
th e ne olithic cultivators.
Journal Malayan Branch [Vol. XXVI, Pt. II,