| Abstract: |
Borneo is one the few remaining major blanks on the map of systematic archaeological research. No investigator has hitherto attempted to excavate any site on modern lines. In 1947 one of us commenced a long-term study of megalithic remains in British Borneo, especially Sarawak (see Harrisson 1948, 1949a, for some preliminary results). Apart from this, the only relevant record is of the curiously dilatory tour made long ago by Mr. A. H. Everett (1880) on behalf of a committee seeking the missing link then all the vogue. Everett visited several caves and noted items of interest therein. The limestone caves and rock-shelters in several parts of Borneo provide starting points for the pursuit of the islands prehistory. On the mainland of South-East Asia, in Java, Sumatra and the Philippines, and down into Australasia, the succession of earliest cultures has been worked out in considerable detail (see e.g., Prof. Heine-Gelderns 1945 summary). Any information from Borneo must, therefore, be of interest to students of Pacific prehistory.
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