In Search of Dragon Bones: Tracing G.H.R. von Koenigswald’s Legacy in Sarawak

via Dayak Daily, 30 October 2023: In Sarawak, the legacy of paleontologist G.H.R. von Koenigswald lives on through the intriguing connection between traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) shops and prehistoric fossils. Known for his work on human and animal fossils in Southeast Asia, von Koenigswald visited Sarawak in 1958. He explored TCM shops, which traditionally sold ‘dragon bones’ and ‘dragon teeth,’ later identified as fossilized remains of prehistoric animals. Recent investigations have continued this unusual method of fossil-hunting, revealing fascinating finds like teeth from an extinct relative of the rhinoceros.

After Munich, employed by the Dutch East Indies Geological Survey in Bandung, he went on to Java. In due course, he made his name known through the discoveries on that island of a series of spectacular human fossils in the 1930s–40s, especially from the Sangiran area. He became an authority on prehistoric human and animal fossils in the region through years of systematic studies of the ancient faunas. Mainly because of this, Tom Harrisson (1911–1976), in his capacity as curator of Sarawak Museum, invited him to visit some of the sites the museum teams were working on in Sarawak.

Von Koenigswald’s fateful visit to Sarawak in February 1958 was co-incidentally a significant year in the annal for Bornean prehistoric human and animal studies.

Immediately before his visit, the ‘Deep Skull’ (the oldest known modern human Homo sapiens skeletal remains known in Borneo and in Malaysia—and now on display at the Borneo Cultures Museum) was found by a Sarawak Museum field excavation team in the West Mouth of Niah Cave under the ever-watchful eyes of their field leader, Barbara Harrisson (1922–2015). Visiting the archaeological sites in Niah was von Koenigswald’s raison d’etre for coming to Sarawak. So, after a brief stay in Segu Bungalow in Kuching, he went to Niah together with his Sarawak host, Tom Harrisson.

Source: Nosing out the dragons in Sarawak: In the footsteps of G.H.R. von Koenigswald