40,000-year-old history
KUCHING: Human skeleton remains excavated in Niah Cave have returned to Sarawak after being brought to the United States more than 50 years ago.
All five crates containing 122 fragments of the 40,000-year-old skeletal remains arrived yesterday at Maskargo at Kuching International Airport after they were shipped from Atlanta, Georgia in the US last Feb 29.
According to Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, it was a grand homecoming for the skeletons.
“They were brought to the US in the early 60s after being excavated in the late 50s as the state was still lacking in research facilities and universities back then.
“Efforts were made for them to be brought to the University of Nevada for research purposes and afterwards, the skeletons were brought to the University of Florida where they were documented and so on,” he said.
“It wasn’t until 2010 that the retrieval process was initiated by our then chief minister (Head of State Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud),” he added during the homecoming ceremony of the Niah Skeletal Collection held at Maskargo here yesterday.
Abdul Karim, who was in Florida to oversee the retrieval process late last month, said the handing over process was nothing short of an emotional event.
“It was a very emotional situation actually. The professor in charge of this research shed his tears when he handed over the skeletal remains.”
Meanwhile, Abdul Karim also explained that the skeletons were fragmented likely because of the humid conditions of Niah cave.
He then proceeded to remind the public that the skeletons were from a time long before the Prophets walked the Earth.
“Nobody can claim that these are Muslim, Christian, or Buddhist skeletons. These are the skeletons of our ancestors as Sarawakians,” he said.
However, the shipping of the skeletal remains did not go without a hitch as Abdul Karim explained it faced some difficulties in Singapore due to the Covid-19 epidemic outbreak.
It was revealed that the skeletons will be exhibited at the previous Sarawak State Museum which is currently undergoing renovations.
