PREHISTORIC TECHNOLOGY AND ART
Malaysia's technological development during prehistoric times is evidenced by stone and metal tools, earthenware, bronze drums and bells, and body ornaments such as beads. About 30,000-40,000 years ago, or earlier, pebble tools were being manufactured at Kota Tampan, Perak, and at Sarawak's Niah Caves. These tools were simple, but more sophisticated technologies existed, as revealed by finds of bifacial tools in southern Thailand and Sabah.
Between 14,000 and 8,000 years ago, when the climate warmed after the last Ice Age, human societies flourished. This era marks the Hoabinhian cultural period of the Malay Peninsula. During this time, technological differences were more apparent between the Peninsular and Bornean sites than they had been 30,000 years ago. The Hoabinhian stone tools of Kelantan's Gua Cha are quite different from the pebble and flake industries of Sabah and Sarawak. This could reflect the beginning of an 'agricultural' economy during the Hoabinhian period, but no such developments can yet be suggested for Borneo.
By at least 4,000 years ago in the Peninsula, and 500 years later in Borneo, in the period known as the Neolithic, the hunter-gatherer world began to face its greatest challenge—the agricultural lifestyle. Systematic crop cultivation began and technology underwent major changes. Pottery and ground-stone tools made a dramatic appearance. However, the hunters and gatherers did not disappear. Indeed, they live on today as the Peninsular Orang Asli group, the Negritos, and also, perhaps, the Punan of Sarawak. Malaysian Neolithic industries reflect different influences. Those of the Peninsula belong to Neolithic cultures found from southern Thailand to Pahang, Sabah's are aligned with the Philippines and Taiwan, while Sarawak sites may combine Peninsular and Philippine influences.
By perhaps 200 BCE, both the Malay Peninsula and Borneo were coming within the orbit of cultures capable of manufacturing items of bronze and iron. At about the same time, contact with India and China began. The period between about 200 BCE and 200 CE, which coincides with the Roman Empire in the West and the Qin/Han Empire in China, was one of remarkable linkages in world trade. Malaysia played its part in all of this because of its strategic location between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. The result was a kind of revolution in Malaysia's archaeological affairs. Bronze drums, beads, fine pottery and iron tools turned the course of cultural evolution from tribal village towards protohistoric civilization. The roots of Srivijayan domination of the region were laid, together with the roots of domination of the whole region today by the Malay language. Yet, throughout all of this, Malaysian technology has developed as a kind of palimpsest. The new came in, but the old often lived on side by side with the new to contribute to the richness which characterizes Malaysian culture today.
