Cave sediments

We often imagine caves to be dark empty spaces echoing with the sounds of bats and adorned with blankets of cave crystal shining under torch light. Yet a largely unnoticed part of most caves is the soil or sediment they contain. Cave sediments that accumulate on cave floors often contain plant materials from the surrounding landscape, guano from bats, chunks of rock dislodged from the cave walls and ceiling or soil washed in when it rained or a nearby stream breached its banks. Together these consolidated sediments provide a physical record of the history of the cave which allows archaeologists to estimate the age of its formation, what the landscape was like outside the cave in the past and how it has changed, and who lived in or used the cave and what they were doing there hundreds and thousands of years ago. The hundreds of caves contained within the Taman Negara Niah, many of which remain unexplored even today, offer exceptional opportunities for archaeologists to understand Borneo’s past, building on the work already undertaken in the Niah Great Cave Complex and Kain Hitam (Painted Cave).