Sitting on a treasure trove

A meteorite strike 1.83 million years ago preserved Stone Age tools at Bukit Bunuh around Lenggong, leading to questions about who were the original natives of this land.

Some malaysian scientists have begun talking about this place being a cradle for the oldest Palaeolithic or old Stone Age human culture to exist outside Africa, notes the writer Himanshu Bhatt.

At one stage, the Bukit Bunuh evidence even put into question the out of Africa theory, as the first modern human movements could have been made out of Southeast Asia instead of east Africa,.

the website lenggong.heritage.gov. my (which could do with much more pizzazz) notes that about 70,000 years ago, the catastrophic toba volcanic eruption caused the abandonment of a site containing multiple tools at Kota tampan. other workshop sites at Bukit Jawa date from around 200,000 - 100,000 years ago.

Before these more recent discoveries, Lenggong has long been known as the site of Perak man, Southeast Asia’s oldest and most complete human skeleton (dating back some 10,000 years and discovered at Gua Gunung runtuh).

the Lenggong valley is malaysia’s fourth Unesco World Heritage site after mulu National Park, Kinabalu National Park and the cities of malacca and George town.

An article in The Star on Aug 30 noted “residents say more needs to be done to promote Lenggong Valley” as it has attracted few visitors despite the Unesco recognition.

in July, National Heritage Department (central zone) director mohd Syahrin Abdullah explained that the department “is struggling to develop proper infrastructure for visitors” at each site as part of a five-year plan.

He said some sites can be visited, such as Gua Kajang, Gua teluk Kelawar, Bukit Sapi, Gua Harimau and Kota tampan, but others are not open, as they are fragile.

on June 11, tourism and Culture minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said that if the sites at Lenggong were not well protected, the Unesco recognition could be retracted. — ByAndrewSia