BWM Talk Series: ‘Niah Cave Heritage – A Perspective from Ancient Fauna’ by Lim Tze Tshen

Posted on June 4, 2025

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Organised by Badan Warisan Malaysia.

Date: 12 July 2025
Time: 10.30 am
Location: Badan Warisan Heritage Centre, No. 2 Jalan Stonor, Kuala Lumpur
Fee: RM20 per person (non-members), Free for BWM members

Light refreshments will be served.

Click HERE to register.

About The Talk

Archaeological exploration and excavations at Niah cave since the 1950s by teams of researchers from Sarawak Museum, in collaboration with other institutions, have not only revealed undisputed skeletal and material cultural evidence of the earliest presence of modern humans (Homo sapiens) known in Borneo and Malaysia, but have also recovered substantial amounts of non-human animal remains from the archaeological deposits inside the cave. These ancient animal remains that are associated with prehistoric humans and their daily activities are an integral part of the archaeological sites at Niah. They enrich the archaeological interpretation of the sites through an additional human-animal dimension stretching back in time to at least 45,000 years ago. Moreover, they provide us with a unique opportunity to understand faunal changes in prehistoric Borneo in response to environmental and anthropogenic influences. This talk, aimed at the general public, will trail the fascinating early history of archaeological research at Niah, with particular focus on the various milestones of achievement that continuously redefine our knowledge concerning Borneo biodiversity heritage. Draws heavily on the many important archaeological faunal specimens recently repatriated from Leiden-Cambridge to Sarawak in 2022/23 and some of the remarkable historical documents in the archives of Sarawak Museum Department, the speaker will lead the audience into the deeper prehistoric world of Malaysia’s latest UNESCO World Heritage Site.      

About The Speaker

By profession, Lim Tze Tshen is a zooarchaeologist and vertebrate palaeontologist specializes in the study of fossil mammals, especially elephants and primates. He studied zooarchaeology and received his Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree from the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge in 2018. From 2019 to 2020, he was a research fellow and guest curator of the Sarawak Museum Campus Project, Kuching, where he worked on the rich ancient animal remains recovered from excavations at Niah archaeological sites. Before that, as a research associate at the Zoology Museum, Universiti Malaya, he was responsible for curating one of the most important and comprehensive animal bones collections in the country. The opportunity allowed him to conduct scientific research based on the collections kept in several museums across Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah. Besides that, he also actively engages in limestone hills and caves biodiversity conservation, mainly through a series of field surveys conducted together with research teams from the Geology Department and the Institute of Biological Sciences of University Malaya, as well as with professional experts from the Malaysian Cave and Karst Conservancy and other grassroots NGOs. Combining prehistoric sites exploration in the field and collection-based studies in museums, his current research topics focus on the evolutionary history of ancient mammal faunas of southeast Asia and its bearing on modern-day biodiversity conservation. A founding and committee member of the Malaysian Biodiversity Collections Society, he is also the honorary secretary of the Friends of Sarawak Museum, an NGO dedicated to promoting the appreciation of Sarawak’s heritage through its museums.