Pollen taphonomy and airfall sedimentation in a tropical cave: the West Mouth of The Great Cave of Niah in Sarawak,Malaysian Borneo |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Anthropology, SUNY the College at Brockport, Brockport, NY 14420, United States;2. The Israel Antiquities Authority, P.O. Box 35, Nahalal, Israel;3. Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel 3498838, Israel;4. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia;5. Institute of Archaeology The Botanical Laboratories, Tel Aviv University, 69978, Israel;1. School of Social Sciences, M257, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia;2. School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia;3. Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia;4. School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia;5. Department of Parks and Wildlife, Locked Bag 104, Bentley Delivery Centre, WA 6983, Australia |
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| Abstract: | This paper investigates the taphonomy of predominantly biogenic sediments and pollen in the key archaeological site in the West Mouth of the Great Cave of Niah, Sarawak. Strong spatial patterning of sediments and pollen were found, with a zonation related to distance into the cave. Near the cave mouth, sedimentation is silty and derived from waters running down the cliff outside the cave, with leaves from external vegetation. Pollen assemblages are similar to forest floor samples outside the cave, and thus are of airfall or wash origin. In the interior of the West Mouth, sedimentation is highly organic and composed largely of bird droppings. Pollen assemblages in the interior are strongly but regularly biased, with ‘over-representation’ of mangrove and riverine taxa resulting from the recruitment of pollen by bats and swiftlets foraging preferentially in these zones, over 7 and over 2 km from the cave, respectively. The significance of these findings for the understanding of humid tropical cave sequences and particularly for the current reassessment of Niah Cave is discussed. |
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