Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Progress In Optical Dating Of Guano-Rich Sediments Associated With The Deep Skull, West Mouth Of The Great Cave Of Niah, Sarawak, Borneo, Mark Stephens, Richard Roberts, O Lian, Hiroyuki Yoshida

Richard G Roberts

The West Mouth of the Great Cave of Niah is one of the major archaeological sites in Southeast Asia; the radiocarbon chronology of this site currently places the earliest presence of Homo sapiens (a Deep Skull find) in Southeast Asia at about 45 ka BP. An optical dating programme using sand-sized quartz was initiated in the West Mouth to complement the radiocarbon chronology. This paper reports on the progress in dating a key sample (sample 376r) that was taken from deposits containing the Deep Skull. A somewhat novel procedure was developed to separate and clean quartz grains from the unusual …