Tom Harrisson, archaeologist
This is a brief biographical and archaeological tribute by Dr. M.W.F. Tweedie to Tom Harrisson, Curator of the Sarawak Museum (1947–1966), published in JMBRAS Vol. 49 (1976).
Summary
Tweedie surveys Harrisson’s contributions to Bornean archaeology under two headings: prehistoric and early historic. In the prehistoric field, the most significant achievement was the excavation at the Great Cave at Niah, begun in 1954 and continued annually until 1966, which revealed a habitation deposit extending back at least 40,000 years into the Pleistocene. The deeper strata yielded Palaeolithic chopping tools comparable to the Indian Sohan culture and a human skull dated to nearly 40,000 years ago, examined by Dr. D.R. Brothwell and identified as a boy of about 15 with Negritoid affinities, generally accepted as the earliest positively dated record of Homo sapiens (p. 149). In the early historic field, Harrisson discovered the Santubong site (1952) with evidence of early iron smelting and T’ang and Sung Dynasty ceramics, and a more productive trading-post site at the Sarawak River delta (1954), indicating a commercial link between China and India spanning roughly 700 to 1350 A.D. (p. 149).
The note also records a spectacular find of boat-shaped wooden coffin burials with red haematite wall paintings in an untouched cave at Niah, and lists Harrisson’s major publications, including The Prehistory of Sabah (1969–70), The Prehistoric Iron Workings of Sarawak (1969), Gold and the Megalithic in Borneo (1970), and The Prehistory of Borneo (1970) (p. 150).