Prehistoric Malaysia

[1] Archaeologists have claimed a much earlier date for stone tools found in the Mansuli Valley, near Lahad Datu, Sabah, starting from 235,000 to 3,000 years ago.

[4] Archaeological finds from the Lenggong Valley in Perak show that people were making stone tools and using jewellery.

A study from Leeds University published in Molecular Biology and Evolution, examining mitochondrial DNA lineages, suggested that humans had been occupying the islands of Southeast Asia for a longer period than previously believed.

Population dispersals seem to have occurred at the same time as sea levels rose, which may have resulted in migrations from the Philippine Islands to as far north as Taiwan within the last 10,000 years.

The migration came from Africa via India, into Southeast Asia and what are now islands in the Pacific, and then later up to the eastern and northern Asian mainland.

[8] Genetic research reported in 2008 indicates that the islands which are the remnants of Sundaland were likely populated as early as 50,000 years ago, contrary to a previous hypothesis[by whom?]

[9][dubious – discuss][10] The theory of the Proto-Malay people originating from Yunnan is supported by R.H Geldern, J.H.C Kern, J.R Foster, J.R Logen, Slametmuljana, and Asmah Haji Omar.

[citation needed] According to most scholars the Đông Yên Châu inscription from around the 4th century AD was written in Old Cham[11] is the oldest Malay text found.

[citation needed] Chamic and Malayic languages are closely related; both are the two subgroups of a Malayic–Chamic group[12] within the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian family.