Rock Art Research

The rock art site at Gua Tambun in Perak, Malaysia was first reported in 1959 and was noted for its spectacular collection of rock art with depictions of anthropomorphs, animal figures and abstract shapes. Little scholarly attention was paid to it, however, and much of the interpretations produced thus far on the rock art have been speculative or unverified. The site was revisited by the authors in January 2009 in order to examine, record and study the rock art in detail. During the course of the fieldwork, individual rock art elements were identified and recorded, including a number of ‘new’ motifs, which are presented in this paper for the first time. The total count now stands at slightly over 500 distinct rock art elements, spread over ten distinct panels, making Gua Tambun one of the largest rock art sites in Malaysia, if not the largest.