16,000-year-old skeleton, crystals and stone tools discovered in Malaysian caves

Archaeologists investigating caves in Malaysia ahead of their flooding for a hydroelectric reservoir have discovered more than a dozen prehistoric burials they think are up to 16,000 years old.

The caves, in the remote Nenggiri Valley about 135 miles (215 kilometers) north of Kuala Lumpur, will be underwater if the reservoir fills as planned in mid-2027, creating a 20-square-mile (53 square km) lake to feed a 300-megawatt hydroelectric power station.

Zuliskandar Ramli, an archaeologist at the National University of Malaysia, told Live Science that most of the skeletons seemed to be from the pre-Neolithic culture of the region.

Some scholars suggest this was a branch of the hunter-gatherer Hoabinhian culture, who made distinctive stone tools found in other parts of Southeast Asia, from southwest China to Indonesia. Scientists also think the Hoabinhian peoples used many wild plants — including pepper, broad beans and betel nut — that are domesticated in the region today.

Ramli, who led the excavations at the Nenggiri Valley, said his team had found a total of 16 individuals buried in 13 limestone caves at four sites.

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Cave finds

Fifteen of the skeletons were buried in a crouched or "fully flexed" position, which indicates a pre-Neolithic burial in this region, Ramli said. But the other skeleton had been buried in an extended position, and dating of the sedimentary layers in the cave, including radiocarbon dating, suggested it originated in the Neolithic period about 6,000 years ago.