| Abstract: |
Jenderam Hilir is an open site in the Langat valley, Selangor, about 43 km inland from the present coast. It is located about 500 metres from the left bank of the Langat River, less than a kilometre downstream from the confluence of the Langat and Semenyih rivers. The site was excavated by a team from the National Museum in 1977 and 1979. The author participated in both excavations, which were conducted at two localities in the as yet un-mined areas of the Tit Nam Hoong open-cast hydraulic tin mine. Prehistroic cultural remains recovered from the Jenderam Hilir excavations, as well as loose finds collected by the tin mine workers during the course of mining in the area, comprised one complete cord-marked bowl, nine nearly whole vessels, and over 130 kg of potsherds of plain, cord-marked and black-burnished pottery, including 135 legs of tripod vessels. Also recovered were many ground and polished stone artifacts, and more than 44 pieces of heavy grinding and pounding stones. The results of some of my analyses of the Jenderam Hilir materials have been presented elsewhere (Leong 1977, 1987, 1990). This paper discusses a set of radiocarbon dates recently obtained for the site and the light these dates throw on the question of prehistoric human occupation in western peninsular Malaysia.
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