Niah National Park is in Miri Division, Sarawak, Malaysia. The park is home to the Niah Caves, which are an archaeological site.

History

Alfred Russel Wallace lived in Simunjan District for 8 months with a mining engineer named Robert Coulson. Coulson had explored what is now northern Sarawak to search for minerals. Later, Coulson wrote to Wallace about finding bones in caves in Sarawak. Wallace learned that one cave was located between Sarawak and Brunei on a mountain inland. In March 1864, Wallace asked Coulson to explore the caves. However, in May 1864, G. J. Ricketts, a British Consul to Sarawak, was appointed for the work. Ricketts did not stay long, and Alfred Hart Everett was chosen instead. Everett surveyed 32 caves in three areas, including Niah/Subis (near Miri) and "Upper Sarawak Proper" (upriver of the Sarawak River at Bau).

In the 1950s, Tom Harrisson, the curator of Sarawak State Museum, searched for signs of ancient human activity in Sarawak. He studied Niah Cave but found no evidence of ancient people there. However, he thought the cave’s cool and dry conditions, along with many bats and swiflets (which could be used for food), might have made it a place for ancient humans to live. In October 1954, Harrisson and two friends, Michael Tweedie and Hugh Gibb, spent two weeks examining Niah Cave. They found proof of long-term human occupation, including homes and burial sites. In 1957, the Sarawak Museum organized a larger expedition with help from Brunei Shell Petroleum and Sarawak Oilfields Ltd. Items found included earthenware, shell tools, stone pounders, bone tools, and food remains. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal layers showed the site was 40,000 years old, from the Paleolithic era. In February 1958, Barbara Harrisson led a team that discovered the "Deep Skull" in the "Hell Trench" (a very hot area) at a depth of 101 to 110 inches. The skull was part of a female in her late teens to mid-twenties. Nearby, a complete left femur and right tibia from the same person were found. Tom Harrisson also found Neolithic burial sites from 2,500 to 5,000 years ago. These discoveries led to more expeditions in 1959, 1965, and 1972.

In 1958, the area was officially named a "National Historic Monument." On 23 November 1974, it became a national park, which opened to the public on 1 January 1975.

In 1960, Don Brothwell suggested the Deep Skull belonged to a teenage male closely related to indigenous people of Tasmania. In the 1960s, 122 human remains from Niah were taken to Nevada, United States. Later studies showed there was not enough evidence to support Tom Harrisson’s earlier work. From 2000 to 2003, the University of Leicester and other universities, along with the Sarawak State Museum, conducted more fieldwork as part of the "Niah Cave Project." New dating of the charcoal and the Deep Skull showed the skeleton was 37,000 years old. In 2006, research from the project found that ancient humans in the caves used mammal and fish traps, weapons, digging tools, plant detoxification, and forest burning. In 2013 to 2014, uranium–thorium dating confirmed the skull’s age. In 2016, Darren Curnoe noted the Deep Skull resembled a female adolescent and was more similar to indigenous people of Borneo than to Tasmanians or the two-layer hypothesis about Southeast Asian origins.

In 2010 and 2021, the Sarawak state government nominated the park for UNESCO’s World Heritage Site title. In 2020, all 122 Niah human remains were returned to Sarawak. On 27 July 2024, Niah National Park was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage Site list.

Geography

The Niah Caves are situated on the north side of a limestone mountain called Gunung Subis (Mount Subis). The entrance to the caves is at the west opening of the cave system. This location is 15 kilometers away from the South China Sea and lies 50 meters above sea level. The west opening of the Niah Caves measures 150 meters in width and 75 meters in height.

Archaeology

The cave is a significant ancient site where human remains from 40,000 years ago were discovered. This makes it the oldest known human settlement in East Malaysia. Studies published in 2006 suggest that humans lived in the Niah caves between about 46,000 and 34,000 years ago. Painted Cave, located in a smaller limestone area about 150 meters from the southern tip of the Great Cave block, contains rock paintings that are 1,200 years old. Archaeologists have found stone tools in the Mansuli valley near Lahad Datu in Sabah that may be older, but exact dates for these tools have not yet been confirmed.

Items discovered at the Niah Cave include tools from the Pleistocene era, such as chopping tools and flakes, as well as Neolithic axes, adzes, pottery, shell jewelry, boats, mats, iron tools, ceramics, and glass beads from the Iron Age. The most famous discovery is a human skull dated to about 38,000 years before the common era. Painted Cave also has rock paintings and wooden coffins, sometimes called "death ships."

Between 1954 and 1966, archaeologists uncovered about 750,000 pieces of animal bones at the site. One of these bones was identified as a metacarpal bone from the hand of a young tiger.

Vegetation

Pearce (2004) identifies six types of plant communities:

• Limestone vegetation found on karst landscapes.
• Mixed Dipterocarp Forest.
• Seasonal Swamp Forest growing on clayey marl soils.
• Seasonal Swamp Forest growing on peat soils.
• Riparian Forest.
• Regenerating Forest.

Current activities

The caves are famous for the bird's nest farming industry and are a well-known tourist spot in Sarawak. Each part of the cave ceiling where swiftlets live is owned by a private individual, and only the owner may collect the nests. Nests are collected twice a year, usually in January and June. Collectors climb hundreds of feet up a pole to the cave ceiling and remove the nests using candles for light.

Gallery

• Cane Reed
• Traders' Cave
• Forest growing on limestone formations
• The Great Cave
• Inside Niah Cave, also known as The Painted Cave