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Early History/ Contents

• Introduction

• Prehistory
• Investigating past environments
• The Pleistocene or Ice Age period
• The postglacial and Holocene periods
• The impact of the paleoenvironment

• Prehistoric settlement patterns
• Adaptation to cave environments
• Adaptation to open environments
• Adaptation to rainforest environments

• Prehistoric technology and art
• The manufacture of stone tools
• Earthenware
• Beads
• Bronzeware
• Iron artefacts
• Rock engravings
• Cave drawings

• Economic patterns of neolithic life
• Hunters and gatherers
• Rice production
• Barter trade networks

• Belief systems in prehistoric times
• Flexed and extended burials
• Cist graves and boat and mound burials
• Jar and log coffin burials
• Megaliths

• The protohistoric period
• From prehistory to protohistory
• Protohistoric settlement patterns
• Chi tu: An island kingdom
• Kuala Selinsing: A mangrove settlement
• Pulau Tioman: A port settlement

• Wider contacts in protohistoric times
• Expansion of trade
• Trade routes and trade centres
• Indian traders
• Chinese traders and pilgrims
• Early Muslim traders
• Southeast Asian traders
• Forms of money

• Indigenization of indian culture
• Transformation of indigenous religious beliefs
• Candi architecture
• Religious sculpture
• Concepts of kingship
• Sociopolitics
• Language

• The port kingdoms
• The Bujang Valley
• The Kinta Valley
• Beruas
• Santubong

• From port kingdoms to entrepÔts
• Entrepôts along the Melaka Strait
• Srivijaya
• The Cola attacks
• From Srivijaya to Temasek to Melaka

• The early Islamic period
• The arrival of Islam
• The Terengganu Stone
• The Pengkalan Kempas inscriptions
• Early Islamic gravestones
• Early Islamic coins