He was about 40-45 years old, they believe. And he was given a proper burial, complete with stone tools, and meant offerings from five different animals as well as shellfish from the river; the shells covered the floor. When they found him 11,000years later, he was remarkably well-preserved, and still in his original foetal position.
Most Malaysians are unware that the earliest human settlement in Malaysia was the Lenggong Valley, Perak. Lush forest ..fresh dewy mornings.. calls of the wild.. natural beauty..
(oo yea, baby.. my birthplace! )
This was where our early history began. The Lenggong Valley was a busy "capital city" in Southeast Asia during the prehistoric period. In this valley was found a long continuous flew of prehistoric cultures from the Paleolithic Period to the Metal Period. The earliest site was Bukit Jawa (about 300,00 years old), followed by the Kota Tampan (74,000 years old), as evidenced by stone tools left by man. However, these site did not reveal evidence of skeleton remains due to unfavourable environmental conditions.
The “Perak Man” is the peninsula’s oldest skeleton. He was discovered in a cave in the Lenggong vicinity near Grik where it was also uncovered the country’s oldest stone tools nearby, potentially dating back 100,000 years. The “Perak Man” is thought to be an ancestor of the Negrito Orang Asli people, a small hunter-gatherer tribe regarded as the oldest inhabitants in the peninsula.
The Lenggong stone tools in Kota Tampan were also discovered intact. Anvils, stone hammers and tools in various stages of being made - complete with flakes and chips - suggest that the site was a tool factory. It was abandoned all those years ago when a volcanic eruption spewed clouds of ash that buried everything - the same eruption that created Lake Toba in Sumatra. Stone tool factories have also been excavated in Tingkayu, Saban and Kubang Pasu, Kedah.
