There is a real possibility that Malaysians might have stumbled upon a ‘first Penang woman’ when a full skeleton of person who is believed to be a woman was discovered in the Guar Kepah areas, what is currently known as the mainland part of Penang.

Recent excavations undertaken by the USM's Global Centre for Archaeological Research headed by Prof Mokhtar Saidin on land owned by the Penang state government made possible this significant finding.

For a long time, archaeological research on Guar Kepar particularly on the marine adaptation of Neolithic people was confined to colonial scholars from 1851 to 1934. During this period, it is beloved about nine full skeletons were discovered and later sent to the Natural Historisch Museum, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Although the USM team was fully aware that there was much historical treasure that remains to be unearthed, but without the support of the federal or state governments, no progress was made.

It was on the advice of USM that the idea of a gallery in Guar Kepar was mooted a few years ago by the Penang state government. After some delay, it was only last year that the state allocated about RM800,000 for the setting up of gallery in Guar Kepah.

The Public Works Department (JKR) appointed a contractor to begin the construction of the gallery. It was supposed to be completed at the end of this year.

However, before full-scale work could commence, the USM team, through their excavations, unearthed this very important skeleton of a person who could have died more than 5,000 years ago.

According to Mokhtar, this the facial bone structure of this person resembles more of a woman rather than a man. Furthermore, the nature of the burial also suggests that she could be also a very important person in her community.

This discovery adds an important dimension to archaeological research in Penang and Malaysia. This finding suggests among other things that in the prehistoric Neolithic period, parts of the mainland had people who were fully adapted to marine live.

These people when they died were buried in the shell middens (mounts) near the seashore. Apart from depending upon marine sources for their livelihood, these human beings also hunted and gathered food from the nearby jungles, not to far off from their access to the sea.

Once the gallery is built, what was unearthed in the recent excavations could be displayed in this place. The USM team also believes that there are more historical ‘treasures’ could be unearthed through excavations.

In this context, I believe that the Jabatan Warisan Negara (Department of National Heritage) could assist the Penang state government in providing funds for the Guar Kepah historical project.

P RAMASAMY is Deputy Chief Minister II of Penang and the state assemblyperson for Perai.