Page 25 - (SSF1033) INTRODUCTION TO MALAYSIAN SOCIAL HISTORY

PRE-HISTORY

MESSAGES

Prehistory: the past period of time before written records or human

documentation, includes the Neolithic Revolution, Neanderthals and
Denisovans, Stonehenge, the Ice Age and more.

Malaysia’s prehistory remains insufficiently studied, but bone and artifact
discoveries at the Niah Cave site in northern Sarawak confirm that the area

was already inhabited by Homo sapiens about 40,000 years ago.
The vast cave complex contains remains that not only indicate a nearly

unbroken succession of human visits and occupations but also chronicle the
evolution of stone tools until some 1,300 years ago.
Peninsular Malaysia has been inhabited for at least 6,000 years,

archaeologists having unearthed evidence of Stone Age and early Bronze
Age civilizations; Neolithic culture was apparently well established by 2500

to 1500 BCE.
Early historical studies postulated that successive waves of peoples—

ancestors of the contemporary Malays—migrated into the region from China
and Tibet during the 1st millennium BCE, pushing earlier inhabitants into the

western Pacific or remote mountain enclaves.