Peat and the coastal plain ecosystems as controls in prehistoric and present human demography (Southeast Asia
This short note by Tom Harrisson (1975) reviews emerging geological and archaeological evidence that large portions of the Southeast Asian coastal plains are far younger than previously assumed, with implications for both prehistoric demography and present-day land use.
Harrisson synthesises C-14 dating work by Anderson (1964) in Sarawak, Tate (1971) in Brunei, and Andriesse’s soil studies to argue that extensive peat formations across Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula are largely Neolithic in age, some no older than 6,000 years (p. 117). A key corollary is that much of coastal Brunei did not exist in the late Pleistocene, which Harrisson invokes to explain the complete absence of Stone Age artifacts there despite successful finds in adjacent Sarawak and Sabah (p. 117). The note further notes the agricultural limitations of these peat soils—low nutrients, high acidity, drainage problems—and urges demographers and archaeologists working with lowland populations to incorporate this revised environmental chronology into their analyses (p. 117).