Early Prehistoric Archaeological Researches In Peninsula Malaysia Up To World War II

Abstract

When G.W. Earl published his reports on the shell-mounds of Lahar Ikan Mati and Guar Kepah (both in Seberang Perai). he became the first person to be associated with prehistoric archaeological investigations. Earl reported finding red rock (haematite?), water-worn quartz pebbles (pounding stones?) and fragmentary human remains at Guar Kepah. Earl sent the human remains to F.W. Huxley for further identification). At that time, Huxley's poor health prevented him from presenting a detailed report on the human remains. In a brief letter to the Ethnological Society of London, Huxley cited that "the very fragmentary condition" of the remains did not allow him to approximate the contour or capacity of the skull, thus depriving him of the "most important datum in any ethnological comparison".This letter became the first published physical anthropological report on the Malay Peninsula prehistoric human remains. The pioneering finds of Earl and Huxley went into obscurity until the original reports were re-discovered by Robert von Heine Geldern some seventy years later.