Journal of the Federated Malay States museums - Sabrizain.org

XXV. PRELIMINARY REPORT ON CAVE
EXPLORATION, NEAR LENGGONG, UPPER PERAK.
By Ivor II. N. Evans, b.a.
Early in 1917 I visited Lenggong, in Upper Perak, with a
view to excavating certain "l the caves and rock-shelters,
which are common in the neighbourhood of that place. Some
exploration of such sites had already been conducted bj
Mr. L. Wray, then Curator of the Perak Museum, in the years
1886, 1891, and at some later date (not stati .1 , th< 1 aves thai
he dealt with being situated in Gunong Cheroh, near Ipoh.
His finds, though sufficiently interesting, did not throw any
gre.it amount of light on the question of the early inhabitants
of the Peninsula. To sum up his work, he proved that some
of the rock -she Iters and caves of the Peninsula were formerly
occupied, for a considerable time, by a people who lived largely
on the flesh of wild animals (and broke theii bones to obtain
the marrow), while they consumed quantities ol fluviatile
mollusks: who used mealing stones and red haemal ite paint :
and were, in some manner, able to possess themselves of a fewvalves
of a species of marine shell (Cyrena sumatrensis )
A stone celt, that is a natural stone of convenient shape
ground to a sharp edge, was disi overed during thelater excavations
at a depth of two feet. Mr. Wray concluded from the
finding of this specimen that the people w ho inhabited tb
were not necessarily the makers of stone implements, " but
only that they were contemporaneous with the maker- of the
implements, from whom they sometimes obtained one by
barter or otherwise, in the same way as the modern Sakai get
iron axes and chopping-knives from the Malays." This may.
of course, have been so: but, if the makers of the stone
implements preceded the inhabitants of the caves fa point
which his excavations did nol ive-dwellei may have
met with the aforesaid implement lying on the surface of the
he Malays do
soil and have taken it home with him, just as 1
with these lithic relics at the present time.
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On the day after my arrival at Lenggong, I visited the
(01,1 Kajang, natural tunnel which pierce, a limestone hill.
A pith leading from near Len ;gon to K Lmpong Gelok passes
through it. At the entrance facing Kampong Gelok there are
two largi on either side of the cave-mouth. These
are rock-shelters of ju the tvpe which were, and are, usualh
by ave-dwi llet s. I made an inspei tion oi the floor
of the shelter on tin- left, which was the deeper of the two, mid
found a large number of the shell; of fluviatile mollusks
(belonging to the genus Melanin) 111 > hollow worn in it
oi Hi/ /' U S M 1
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1 Xnst ,
V,.! xxvi, pi jfi 47 Journal
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