The extensive charcoal cave art at the Gura Sireh Cave on the island of Borneo appears to reflect decades of frontier violence, according to a new analysis.
Cave art continued in Southeast Asia until the relatively recent past, the new paper says. Scientists carbon-dated some of Gura Sireh’s drawings to a period between 1670 and 1830. At the time, the indigenous hill tribes, the Bidayuh, suffered at the hands of the local Malay elites, who ruled the countryside.
The cave art at Gura Sireh is only the tip of the iceberg for cave art in Southeast Asia, experts say. A similar tradition extends back about 3,500 years, while island cave art in the region dates to more than 45,500 years ago. That rivals the earliest examples ever found in Europe.
Mohammad Sherman Sauffi William and Jillian Huntley collect a charcoal sample inside the Gura Sireh Cave. (Credit: Paul S.C. Tacon)
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