1/8 Let's start with Rock Art! I guess if historians study the past through texts, then the "texts" that archaeologists study are material remains. In my case, I am really interested in paintings and carvings made on natural rock surfaces across SEA (and to some extent megaliths)

2/8 While Southeast Asia isn't the first place you think of when it comes to man-made markings in the natural landscape (France, Southern Africa and Australia usually come to mind), there has been a lot of rock art discoveries from the region in the last 40 years.

3/8 The biggest news from the region are the ones coming out of Indonesia, where rock art in Borneo and Sulawesi are consistently returning dates of ~35-40,000 years old (kyr). This is a boar from Leang Timpuseng in Sulawesi, around 35 kyr old.

4/8 Most rock art is really hard to date directly. With some exceptions like the recent discoveries in Indo, most rock art is thought to be prehistoric, and at least older than living memory. There are some exceptions, like this example that can be precisely dated to June 2011:

5/8 Nah, seriously. Nyan Cat is part of a Malaysian rock art site, Gua Tambun in Ipoh, which was my MA research. It is the largest site in Malaysia, with over 600 paintings painted in 6-7 distinct episodes. Artifacts found there put them to late Holocene/early Neolithic

6/8 We have more recent, 'historic' rock art, such as this carving of Ganesha from Poeung Komnou in Siem Reap, c. 10-11th century CE. The site is a rock shelter-hermitage with Hindu carvings, but also contains some red 'prehistoric' art.

7/8 Or this unusual depiction of a steamship, found in a cave along the Mekong River in Luang Prabang, Laos. Steamships used to ply the Mekong in the late 19th and early 20th century, part of French gunboat diplomacy. Also, this may be the only example of green rock art in SEA.

8/8 Basically, people have been leaving their mark on natural landscapes for thousands of years, and sometimes fascinating stories can be inferred from their depictions, their historical context, or how they were made. Would you like to know more? - NHT