Niah’s caves have provided groundbreaking insights into human life on Borneo way back when the island was still connected to mainland Southeast Asia. In 1958 archaeologists led by Tom Harrisson discovered the 40,000-year-old skull of an anatomically modern human, while rock paintings and several small canoe-like coffins (‘death ships’) indicate that the site was used as a burial ground much more recently. The caves also accommodate a staggering number of bats and are an important nesting site for swiftlets.
