Magala – a series of Neolithic and Metal Age burial grottos at Sekaloh, Niah, Sarawak
Barbara and Tom Harrisson published this article in 1968 in the Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (Vol. 41, No. 2), reporting on the 1964 Sarawak Museum excavation of the Magala cave system on the southern fringe of the Subis limestone formation at Niah, Sarawak. The overarching thesis is that Magala preserves two culturally discrete burial phases—a Neolithic phase (c. 1,130 B.C.) and a Metal Age phase (c. 1300–1600 A.D.)—separated by a gap of over two millennia, and that the site’s assemblages illuminate the complex funerary traditions of the Subis mountain region.
Summary
The article reports on the excavation of a labyrinthine cave system comprising over 52,000 square feet of interior space, divided into twenty topographically distinct sub-sections. A significant analytical difficulty arose from earlier guano extraction, which had removed deposits from the most accessible areas and displaced materials across the formation. The authors therefore worked with two undisturbed cave-mouth deposits for the early phase and relied on surface scatter and systematic sherd reconstruction for the later phase, developing a distribution framework that separated the two cultural elements spatially and materially.
The early phase, centred in a single shelter (Mouth E), consists of haematited primary and secondary cremated burials associated with native earthenware—including the characteristic Niah double-spouted funereal vessel—polished stone tools, and imported riverine shells. The authors link this assemblage to the nearby Lobang Jeragan site and interpret it as representing a small-statured group of modest economic status, practising burial rites with minimal grave furniture. The stone tools raise the question of local manufacture versus external trade: the authors argue that the cruder, locally made tools (a crescentic “soft” tool of sandstone, a reshaped quadrangular adze of chert-like stone) reflect endemic technique, while the more refined quadrangulars may have been carried in as value objects.
The later phase is a Metal Age burial ground characterised by imported Chinese and Siamese stoneware, thousands of glass seed beads, metal ornaments, wooden images of Melanau type, and secondary burials accompanied by ritual pig deposits. Through reconstruction of 1,477 ceramic sherds into 53 original vessels, the authors demonstrate that the ceramics were deliberately fragmented at the time of burial, that specific jar types were subjected to type-specific ritual modification (chiselling of necks and rims), and that post-depositional disturbance by guano diggers and possible looting of exceptional pieces complicated the scatter pattern. The authors attribute the later phase to a Melanau-type population, drawing on the wooden images, the ceramic tradition, and parallel evidence from the nearby Upiusing cave.
Key Findings
- C-14 dating: the Magala E Neolithic burial yielded 3,130 ± 240 years (c. 1,180 B.C., Geochron No. 0337); the comparable Lobang Jeragan sealed jar gave 3,070 ± 410 years (c. 1,130 B.C., Geochron No. 0336), establishing a gap of over 2,000 years between the two phases at Magala (pp. 150–151).
- Ceramic reconstruction: 1,477 imported ceramic sherds were rebuilt into 53 original vessels—32 jars and 21 saucers, bowls, or plates—with an average of 41 fragments per jar and 7 per plate; 95% of all imported ceramic sherds concentrated in Area B of the formation (pp. 157, 161–162).
- Deliberate ritual damage: all 15 Type H jars (temmoku-glazed, dark olive brown to black) had their necks and rims chiselled away, while all 7 Type F jars (olive brown glaze, loop handles) retained intact rims, indicating type-specific ritual function (pp. 166–168).
- Beads: 5,184 beads recovered, all but four being monochrome glass seed beads of 0.1–0.6 cm diameter; an estimated 20% showed heat distortion, and a fair proportion were of a twisted type also described from Upiusing (p. 170).
- Skeletal remains: 15,206 grammes of bone total (96% in Area B), with 136 human teeth and 88 pig teeth identified; the close spatial correlation between bone and ceramics (4% Area A / 96% Area B for both) confirms a single burial context for the later phase (pp. 172–173).
- The Neolithic double-spouted earthenware vessel measured approximately 28 cm in height and 24 cm at maximum width, with spouts spreading 11.5 cm at the tip from an octagonal disk decorated with incised strokes, the body polished and rubbed with haematite (p. 153, Plate 3).
Conclusion
The authors conclude that Magala documents two discrete funerary traditions on the southern margin of the Subis formation, separated by a gap of over two thousand years with no apparent continuity. The Neolithic phase represents a limited, modest burial activity by a small-statured group with minimal grave goods, consistent with the nearby Lobang Jeragan and distinct from the richer sites on the seaward side of the mountain. The Metal Age phase reflects a more elaborate Melanau-associated tradition involving imported trade ceramics subjected to deliberate ritual destruction, secondary burial with pig sacrifice, and the deposition of wooden images and glass ornaments—a tradition that, through the wider ceramic range at Magala compared with Upiusing, may extend back to approximately 600 years before the 1964 excavation (pp. 173–174).
Context
- The primary data derive from the 1964 Sarawak Museum excavation, supplemented by the Museum’s reference collection of over 3,000 non-archaeological whole ceramic pieces accumulated over two decades from native informants across Borneo (p. 164).
- The article contributes methodologically by applying systematic sherd reconstruction and spatial scatter analysis to Bornean burial ceramics, a technique that became standard in subsequent regional archaeological work and that here demonstrates both ritual intentionality and post-depositional disturbance in a single site.