The Ecole francaise d'Extreme-Orient - Sarawak Museum Department Archaeological Project in Santubong

Abstract

Archaeological research in Sarawak began just after the Second World War under the leadership of Tom Harrisson. As Curator of the Sarawak Museum since 1947, he began exploring the Sarawak River Delta, a 600 km area between Telaga Air in the northwest, Tanjung Sipang in the north, Tanjung Po in the northeast, Samarahan in the southeast and Kampung Makam in the southwest. It is the village of Santubong at the mouth of the Santubong River, one of the branches of the delta, that first caught Harrisson's attention because of observations and chance finds made there since the middle of the nineteenth century. Mention should be made of the famous Batu Gambar, an anthropomorphic sculpture in high relief on a rock at the Sungai Jaong site, rediscovered by a local in the 1880s, and near which was found a "Hindu" terracotta figurine, of carved stones reported at the beginning of the twentieth century on the neighbouring site of Bongkissam, "Indian character" pottery, as well as various objects in gold, Chinese coins and a few residues from ironworking (cf. especially Evans 1929).