Niah Deep Skull
Cráneo profundo de Niah
- Date
- c. 40 ka · confidence medium
- Place
- Niah Caves, Miri, Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia
- Credited to
- Tom Harrisson and the Sarawak Museum (excavation); first Homo sapiens of Borneo
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Skull of an adolescent found in 1958 at the West Mouth of Niah Cave, among the oldest Homo sapiens remains in island Southeast Asia. The cave's levels show rainforest hunting and plant use more than 40,000 years ago.
The original age (c. 40 ka, 1959) was revised in 2000-2007: recent datings place it between about 46 and 34 ka cal. The skull's exact stratigraphic relationship is debated.
What it led to
- evidence of early human settlement of Borneo and the route to Sahul
- studies of human use of tropical rainforest in the Pleistocene
- Niah as a benchmark site (World Heritage, 2024)