The archaeological investigation of caves and rock shelters is widely considered to provide
important clues for the understanding of cultural development during the late-Pleistocene and
Holocene periods in Southeast Asia. Barker, Reynolds and Gilbertson (2005) suggested that
caves and rock shelters are important as a focus of archaeological research in this region for a
number of reasons, including: (i) the boundary, size and artifact density, which makes a cave
site easier to tackle than an open site; (ii) caves and rock shelters have more stable
microclimates; and (iii) the nature of caves and rock shelters makes them likely to collect
sequences of deposits that can assist in the study of the relationships between cultural and
environmental changes through time.
Since