TRAVEL

TRAVEL: MALAYSIA

Rocks, art, landscapes

and creativity
Art in Malaysia
Rock-art specialist Dr George
Nash reports on his travels to
Malaysia where he was involved
in an engaging fieldschool.

W
hat do rock-art, good food, the monsoon
rains and travelling have in common?
Answer: The recent rock-art fieldschool
in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This inter-
nationally-organised fieldschool, held
between the 23rd and the 27th November 2008, brought
together four world renowned rock-art specialists to talk
about recording, interpretation and protection of this
extremely finite archaeological resource.
Reaching Malaysia from the UK was long and arduous,
but following a four hour stop-over in the shopping capital
of the world, Dubai, we eventually arrived at Kuala Lumpur,
a city dwarfed by the many skyscrapers - including the
Petronas Twin Towers standing at 452m – and with a rich,
but in places patchy historic built heritage; a reminder of
the British Colonial past.

The fieldschool commences

The fieldschool was organised by Trent & Peak Archaeology,
the University of Nottingham and the Centre for Archaeo-
logical Research Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).
We had attracted students from far and wide including a
number of professionals employed in the heritage world.
ABOVE The vertical limestone
The venue for the lectures was Nottingham University’s
IMAGE: Yann

cliff – home to the decorated Gua

Tambun cave, Malaysia. Malaysia Campus KL offices. A safe haven form the heavy
monsoonal showers that marked our stay.

www.world-archaeology.com 51
 The lectures, organised as a series of themed blocks, trans-
ported students all over the rock-art world with specialised
presentations by course leader Professor Paul Taçon who
talked about the rock-art, and also the spread of modern
humans, in Australia, China and South Africa. The host,
Prof. Mohd Mokhtar Saidin, presented his research on the
prehistoric rock-art of Malaysia, noting that new dating
from one cave site may reveal Malaysia’s first Palaeolithic
art. Anthropologist, Dr Sally May, whose work focusses on
Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory region of Australia,
concentrated on the management and heritage value of rock
art sites. She argued that the importance of forming dialogue
and relationships between researches and indigenous
peoples. I had the pleasure of presenting my research into
Neolithic megalithic art in North Wales, hunting art from
northern Scandinavia and medieval art from Indonesia.
Finally, fieldschool organiser Barry Lewis gave a short lecture
on laser scanning, a recent innovation that will shortly be
used at the Malaysian cave site of Gua Tambun.
To engage our students further, each of the course conve-
nors used a variety of approaches to discuss and illustrate
the rock art, its execution and development – including ABOVE Geo-referencing a section of the panel using vertical and horizontal
archaeological theory, anthropology and philosophy. scales at Gua Tambun.
Each lecture block was supported by open debate, a series
of student exercises and topical films. Happily, the feedback The rock-art of Gua Tambun
from the students was very positive - possibly aided by the One of the highlights of the fieldschool was a visit to the
good Oriental food, and the after-lecture beer! aforementioned rock-art cave site of Gua Tambun, located
in classic tropical karst limestone country within the state
of Perak, some 3 hours north of Kuala Lumpur.
RIGHT Malaysia’s favourite past-time: food. The school was treated to every
type of cuisine, from Japanese/Taiwanese style Sushi given a Malaysian twist Once there, the humid atmosphere of the Malaysian inte-
to traditional Chinese and Malay cuisine. rior soon had our brows running with sweat; made worse
BELOW The glimmering Petronas Twin Towers of by the exhaustive hike to the site.
the capital.
The site was discovered in the 1950s
and recognised as a site of national impor-
tance in the 1970s; a flight of concrete
steps leads from the boggy valley floor
(and polo ranch) to a wide rocky ledge.
The rock-art, currently being studied by
one of the delegates Noel Hidalgo Tan
(from USM), is organised into five areas on
a near vertical cliff-face is both painted and
carved. The painted imagery, representing
a number of phases is mainly stylistic in form and includes
x-ray and silhouette animal imagery, using a variety of red
haematite shades. This repertoire included red deer, fish and
unique representations of a tapir and a possible orang-utan.
Present on the main panel was a stylised x-ray pregnant red
deer, carrying a foetus, also painted in the x-ray style.
Fortunately, the five rock-art panels are located some
5m above the present floor level and have therefore been
spared any modern graffiti or acts of vandalism. However,

52 CURRENTWORLDA RCHAEOLOGY . Issue 33

 TRAVEL: MALAYSIA

TOP LEFT The rock art of Gua

Tambun: a rare occurrence of a
tapir, located above the main panel
(outlined top right).
BOTTOM LEFT Located below a
possible dog is the faint painted
image of a possible orang-utan
(outlined right).
ABOVE Central figure from one
of the five panels at Gua Tambun,
portraying a painted red deer with
foetus.

sections of the original cave wall have flaked away possibly
due to quarrying and in particular the removal of stone, and
originally guano, by Chinese settlers. Despite the damage
and the lowering of the former floor level, the rock artists
would have still used scaffolding in order to paint onto the
upper panels.
Join us!
The success of the fieldschool means that we are now plan-
ning a similar fieldschool in 2009 – but in September, i.e.
before the onset of the Northeast Monsoon season, which
affects this part of South East Asia. We intend to include even
more fieldwork and research and recording and to hold the
school in Penang, Malaysia’s second smallest state, with its
capital at the 18th century port of Georgetown, which (along
with Malacca, Malaysia’s ‘historical state’) has recently been
designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
For readers who would like regular updates on South East
Asian archaeology, please look at Noel Hidalgo Tan’s blog
and website at: www.SoutheastAsianArchaeology.com.
While those who are interested in joining future courses in
Malaysia can contact Barry Lewis at Trent & Peak Archae-
ology on +44 (0)115 9514828 or by email at barry.lewis@
nottingham.ac.uk.
We look forward to
welcoming you to the land SOURCE
of rock-art, good food, and Dr George Nash is a part time
lecturer at the University of Bristol,
excellent archaeological
England and Associate Archaeologist
company! at SLR Consulting, Shrewsbury.

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