1967. His research on Sarawak archaeology continued from a distance until 1975 and was published, after his death, in early 1976 (Solheim and Jensen 1977). His primary activities, as the Director of the Sarawak Museum in Kuching, were at Santubong, near Kuching, and at the Niah Caves, far to the northeast.

Harrisson’s first indicated interest in Sarawak archaeology started in 1946 or 1947 when he was still with the British military (Solheim 1977a, 4). He was involved in the mapping of iron deposits at Santubong using military mine detectors and trained military personnel. When he visited the Niah Caves in 1947 to check on birds-nest collecting he noted possible prehistoric material there. Actual excavation started in the Bao Caves in 1949, not so much for the data to be obtained but as part of the training of future Sarawak Museum staff and of Harrisson himself. Harrisson, with no archaeological training himself, brought in Michael Tweedie, the Director of the Raffles Museum in Singapore, to provide the archaeological background (Harrisson and Tweedie 1951).

Excavations at six main sites in Santubong were the main training in archaeology for both Harrisson and the Sarawak Museum staff. Santubong had been known since the nineteenth century for stray finds of gold ornaments, stone and glass beads and bracelets, porcelains and stone wares, and a large quantity of iron slag. Common Chinese coins dated between a.d. 976 and 984. “The first Santubong digging was in 1949 and the first excavation in 1952. The Santubong archaeology through 1956 could be considered the completion of the training period of Sarawak archaeology” (Solheim 1983, 36–37). Harrisson published on a wide variety of archaeological subjects, based primarily on library research, during this period (Solheim and Jensen 1977).

The primary site in Brunei to date is Kota Batu (two miles from Brunei town), the location of the first Brunei Sultanate capital, with beginnings well before Islam came to the area. Tom Harrisson started looking over the area in 1951, did some testing in 1952, and, with Barbara Harrisson, made a preliminary excavation in 1953 (Harrisson and Harrisson 1956).

Philippines

Much of Beyer’s valuable archaeological and ethnological library in his two houses in Ermita was destroyed during the battle of Manila. While he was able to save most of the ethnographic collections of the National Museum during the battle, the section of the museum where the archaeological collections were stored was gutted, the shelves and cabinets burned, and the artifacts deposited in a midden up to two meters deep on the basement floor. Beyer’s office in a building near the palace was not hurt, so a portion of his library and collections were saved (Solheim 1969b, 12). Following the hostilities he completed the writing of his two major archaeological reports on the Philippines, published in 1948. Most of his collaborators were gone and he had lost contact with most of his collectors in the provinces so there was no field activity until 1950. In 1953 the Philippines hosted the Eighth Pacific Science Congress and Beyer organized the Fourth Congress of Far Eastern Prehistorians, held jointly. This was a major event in Southeast Asian and Pacific archaeology (see Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association).

Solheim came to the Philippines in late 1949 and spent a month in the field in 1950 excavating in a jar burial site on the Bondok Peninsula in southern Tayabas, southeast of Manila (Solheim 1951). In 1951 and 1953 Solheim was again in the field with several Filipino archaeology students, surveying and excavating on Masbate (Solheim 1954, 1968). In 1951 the first survey and excavation was of Batungan Mountain in Masbate, one of the small Visayan Islands. Several cave and rock shelter sites were tested and pottery similar to the earliest pottery in Micronesia was recovered from two sites. From other sites, pottery was discovered that was similar to the pottery from the Kalanay Cave Site. From one of these sites the first C-14 dating in the Philippines was done, giving a date of 2,710±100 years ago (L274) (Solheim 1968). The excavation of the Kalanay Cave site on Masbate, in combination with the study of the earthenware pottery recovered by Guthe in the 1920s, led to the presentation of the Kalanay Pottery Complex in the Philippines (Solheim