• My last post of the year on the main website is a bumper issue on the highlights from this past year in Southeast Asian Archaeology. Link in the bio or here:https://www.southeastasianarchaeology.com/2020/12/29/southeast-asian-archaeology-2020-year-in-review/
#southeastasianarchaeology #yearinreview
  • Non-archaeology post, BLACK FRIDAY SALE: A couple of special deals for @adobe products and @expressvpn until 28 November. These are software that I actually use in my day-to-day work, so they might be useful to you too. 24% off for Adobe Creative Cloud (more if you’re a student or teacher!) and 3 months free for a 12-month subscription to Express VPN. Link below and in bio:
https://www.southeastasianarchaeology.com/blackfriday2020/
  • 1) Bangles from Burial 49, Ban Chiang early-middle period. 2) Bent spear tip from Burial 76. 3) The latest volumes from White and Hamilton on the archaeology of Ban Chiang, a significant Unesco World Heritage Site in Thailand. I’m looking for reviewers for the SPAFA Journal @seameospafa (ideally a Thai and/or a professional archaeologist) if you’re interested, send me a PM. #banchiang #thailand #bronzeage #udonthani #book #upenn #booksforeview #thaiarchaeology #southeastasianarchaeology #prehistory #neolithic #thaihistory #บ้านเชียง #unescoworldheritage
  • Entry to Wat Chedi Luang is not much, 40 baht for adults or $US1.30 - but when we entered there was nobody at the booth and the groundskeeper told us to go right in - the lack of tourists meant the inability to pay for ticketing staff. Heritage sites dependent on tourism are taking a beating, like the rest of the industry. We left a small donation to the temple, and at every temple we visited, to help for its upkeep. #covid19 #heritagetourism #archaeotourism #chiangmai #thailand #watchediluang
#วัดเจดีย์หลวง #thaiarchaeology #thaiarchitecture #lanna #lannaculture #southeastasianarchaeology #archaeology #archaeologytravel #oldchiangmai #southeastasia #northernthailand #ancientruins
  • Check out my story for the Night at the Museum event at the Bangkok National Museum - in conjunction with Thai Museums Day on September 19. The museum hosted a tea party with musical and dance performances, followed by guided tours at the galleries. It was a good opportunity to catch the new exhibition ‘San Somdet’ - an exploration of Thai history, archaeology and culture through the correspondence of two princes. #bangkok #thailand #nationalmuseum #nationalmuseumbangkok #nightatthemuseum #sansomdet #thaimuseumday #thaihistory #thaiarchaeology #southeastasianarchaeology
  • In Chiangmai yesterday and today and most of my trip was concentrated in the old city of Chiangmai. Wat Chedi Luang, located close to the centre of the city, is easily the largest stupa in the area despite it incomplete state. Built at the end of the 14th century and damaged by earthquake in the 15th century, the chedi once housed the Emerald Buddha that had previously resided in Luang Prabang and is now in Bangkok. H/T to @pathsunwritten for his guides to Chiangmai. The history and archaeology of northern Thailand is unfamiliar to me, what else should I visit, during my next trip to Chiangmai?
#chiangmai #thailand #watchediluang
#วัดเจดีย์หลวง #thaiarchaeology #thaiarchitecture #lanna #lannaculture #southeastasianarchaeology #archaeology #archaeologytravel #oldchiangmai #southeastasia #northernthailand #ancientruins #emeraldbuddha
  • Chedi Chiang Lom, the oldest building in Wat Chiang Man วัดเชียงมั่น, itself the oldest temple in the old city of Chiangmai. The temple was built in 1297, while King Mengrai was building his new city of Chiangmai. The Chedi is similar to Wat Chang Lom in Sukhothai. #วัดเชียงมั่น #chiangmai #chedi #stupa #elephant #thailand #thaiarchaeology #southeastasianarchaeology #lanna #buddhism #oldcity #ancientarchitecture
  • The Big Bad Wolf book sale might sound familiar if you live in Southeast Asia (especially Malaysia and Thailand), and this year due to the pandemic they
  • Gold leaf relic from the 11-12th century, found inside one of the Khmer temples in Northeast Thailand (I
  • Wat Phra Si Sanphet was one of the most significant temples of Ayutthaya, being located in the grounds of the royal palace. The three chedis here house the remains of three 15th-century kings, Trailok, Ramathibodi II and Borommarachathirat III. The Ayutthaya Historical Park is now reopen to the public, with safe distancing measures in place! #watphrasisanphet #วัดพระศรีสรรเพชญ์ #ayutthaya #royalpalace #ayutthayahistoricalpark #thailand #ruins #chedi #unescoworldheritage #tourismthailand #travelthailand #thaiarchaeology #southeastasianarchaeology
Monday, January 18, 2021
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Home » Malaysia » Rock art from Merapoh, Pahang

Rock art from Merapoh, Pahang

Tags: indigenous peoplesMerapoh (town)Mokhtar Saidin (person)Orang Asli (people)Pahang (state)rock art
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Rock art from Merapoh, Pahang

In the last year, a group of cavers1 have been exploring the limestone caves near Merapoh, in Pahang, Malaysia. In their survey of about a 100 caves, they have discovered a number with drawings in them and they have asked me to comment on them.

Rock art at Gua Seribu Cerita near Merapoh, Pahang. Photo: Habli Basir.
Rock art at Gua Seribu Cerita near Merapoh, Pahang. Photo: Habli Basir.

Six caves with drawings have been identified (Technical note: drawings=applied dry, paintings=applied using wet pigment). They are black in colour, which suggests charcoal, and if so might potentially be carbon dated. That said, black rock art in Southeast Asia tends to be more recent2, and some of the subjects depicted on the rock also suggest a recent time frame (perhaps in the last 200 years). The relative freshness of the rock art also suggests a young age. Of course, I haven’t been to the sites myself and I’m commenting off photographs so I could be wrong.

Black drawings are fairly common in Peninsular Malaysia, and they have been associated with the orang asli (literally, the original peoples) of Malaysia. Evans3, an early ethnographer observed orang asli in Perak creating similar drawings and they were described as drawing items that they saw in their daily lives. Black coloured rock art sites are fairly common in peninsular Malaysia and as far north as Southern Thailand, so the discovery of more sites is not surprising. In Pahang, two previously noted sites are Gua Kechil4 and Gua Luas5.

The first of these sites is named Gua Seribu Cerita (Cave of a Thousand Stories, quite poetic!), and is said to contain hundreds of drawings located over a number of panels throughout the cave. This site has quite a number of interesting pictoral elements.

Gua Seribu Cerita. Photo: Habli Basir.
Gua Seribu Cerita. Photo: Habli Basir.

When taken in concert, some of the drawings suggest a fairly recent (maybe the last 100-200 years) creation date. Depictions of an ‘agricultural’ scene where a people are are standing in the middle of fields, which have been demarcated by a square look like farming of some sort. A series of lines at the bottom of another panel look like ‘train tracks’ – interestingly enough, the railway passes within a kilometre of the cave. Although there is no train depicted, there appears to be a person on the right side of the tracks where the tracks are incomplete – this could be a depiction of the track being laid, and hence possibly an event that can be dated! The last interesting element from this site is the depiction of a human figure with the hands-on-hips posture. This particular posture has been associated with colonial Europeans as an arrogant, domineering posture and has been noted in several other rock art sites inside and outside of Malaysia6.

‘Agricultural’ scene at Gua Seribu Cerita. Photo: Habli Basir
‘Agricultural’ scene at Gua Seribu Cerita. Photo: Habli Basir
‘Train Tracks’ at Gua Seribu Cerita. Photo: Habli Basir.
‘Train Tracks’ at Gua Seribu Cerita. Photo: Habli Basir.

 

‘European figure’. Gua Seribu Cerita. Photo: Habli Basir
‘European figure’. Gua Seribu Cerita. Photo: Habli Basir

The ‘train tracks’, ‘European’ figure and to some extent the ‘agricultural scene’ all fit in nicely with a class of rock art called Contact Rock Art, which commonly refers to depictions of European colonialism by indigenous groups. Gua Badak in Perak also fits in with this type of rock art and the underlying idea here is that indigenous populations were drawing the novel. So while Evans noted that the Lenggong Negritos were drawing scenes from everyday life, these new people and technologies that came in where drawn in juxtaposition to the everyday and probably drawn because they were also so disruptive.

Other caves with rock art discovered in the area include Gua Gajah Gosok (Elephant Rubbing Cave), Gua Jambatan Batu (Stone Bridge Cave), Gua Lima (cave 5), Gua Susu Kambing (Goat’s Milk Cave) and Gua Jinjang Pelamin (Wedding Throne Cave7) the last two of which share the depiction of a ‘lizard’, the symbolism of which is yet to be known – group marker or hunting signal are possible explanations. It is not surprising that the rock art has been discovered as a cluster – it denotes that people have been using, and moving in and out of, these caves and they have a collective significance and function.

Gua Jambatan Batu. Photo: Liz Price.
Gua Jambatan Batu. Photo: Liz Price.

 

Gua Lima. Photo: Liz Price
Gua Lima. Photo: Liz Price
‘Lizard’ from Gua Susu Kambing. Photo: Habli Basir
‘Lizard’ from Gua Susu Kambing. Photo: Habli Basir
Lizard’ figure from Gua Jinjang Pelamin. Photo: Liz Price
Lizard’ figure from Gua Jinjang Pelamin. Photo: Liz Price

In rock art lingo, I’m describing these drawings in single quotes (‘train tracks’) to indicate they are my interpretations. They may not be the right meanings, or what the creators intended to depict, or they may even have multiple meanings! Such is the peril of interpreting rock art, and my role as a rock art researcher is to make sense of these of these drawings and what they tell us about the people who made them. If my interpretations are correct and the art is recent, there is a possibility that the creators of their art or their descendants still exist, and finding them and asking them about the art may shed light on their meaning. For more pictures of the rock art, check out Liz’s posts on her blog here and here.

1. Many thanks to Habli Basir and Liz Price, part of the caving team to the Merapoh Caves who have shared their photos with me for this post.
2. Tan, N. H. 2003. Rock Art Research in Southeast Asia: A Synthesis. (In preparation).
3. Evans, I. H. N. 1927. Negrito Cave Drawings at Lenggong, Upper Perak. Journal of the Federated Malayan States Museums, 12, 105-106.
4. Zulkfli Jaafar 2003. Ancient limestone landscapes of Malaysia: An archaeological insight, Kuala Lumpur, Department of Museums and Antiquities.
5. Abdul Latib Ariffin 1985. Penyelidikan Lukisan Lama di Gua Luas, Batu Luas (Kuala Kenyam), Ulu Tembeling, Pahang. Malayan Naturalist, 38, 38-43.
6. Mokhtar Saidin & Taçon, P. S. C. 2011. The recent rock drawings of the Lenggong Valley, Perak, Malaysia. Antiquity, 85, 459–475.
7. In an earlier translation attempt, Google Translate called it Necromancer’s Throne. Which is a much better name, IMO. Thanks to Nick Gani for the correction.

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