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Ref ID: 37928
Ref Type: Journal Article
Authors: Tom Harrison
Title: Early "Jar Burials" in Borneo and Elsewhere
Date: June 1974
Source: Asian Perspectives
Publisher: University of Hawai'i Press
Abstract: In an article that appeared in 1960, W. G. Solheim discussed jar burial on several Philippine islands in the context of jar-burial practice elsewhere in Asia. Inez de Beauclair (1972) has valuably enhanced our understanding of this distinctive process as it is found on Botel Tobago Island (Hungt'ou Yii), off Taiwan. The present account extends the picture two thousand miles across open water to the southern limits of the China Sea, the Sarawak coast, and its hinterland of northwest Borneo. Here into modern times inland peoples such as the riverine Berawan (Furness 1902: 139) and the highland Kelabit (Harrisson 1959; 1962a: 11) have favored both primary and secondary burials in imported Chinese stoneware jars. These burials, which include massive examples in three-colored earthenware (Solheim, Harrisson, and Wall 1959: 167), are also a conspicuous feature of the cave Neolithic.
Volume: 17
Number: 2
Page Start: 141
Page End: 144