Last Updated: 7:05am, Dec 10, 2013

SUNGAI PETANI (Dec 10): The significance of the Bujang Valley in history has been heightened by a latest sensational laboratory report on four sections of a newly excavated jetty complex - dating them each to 487 BC.

This means that the port settlement in Kedah thrived 2,500 years ago, making it the earliest and oldest among the ancient kingdoms of South-east Asia. The civilisation lived until the 13th century AD.

fz.com has learnt that the tests were conducted by the Korea Basic Science Institute in South Korea, through an Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating technique.

The results were received by the Centre for Global Archaeological Research (CGAR) of Universiti Sains Malaysia two weeks ago.

An elated CGAR director Prof Dr Mokhtar Saidin hailed the development as validating the existence of a fairly advanced society, with high mastery of engineering and commerce, at that time.

“It is very old,” he said during an expedition by fz.com to the Sungai Batu archaeological site where the jetty complex has been excavated.

“The same date was recorded on not just one sample, but four separate bricks found here,” he added, stressing that the samples were taken from different parts of the complex.

“We can confirm that this is the oldest civilisation in South-east Asia,” Mokhtar said. “There was not a single one like this in the region at that time.”

Relation to other kingdoms in region

For comparison purposes, other prominent ancient kingdoms in South-east Asia include:

> Champa, in southern and central Vietnam (200 AD - 1832);
> Funan, in Cambodia and Vietnam (100 AD – 628 AD);
> Langkasuka, in southern Thailand (100 AD - 1300s);
> Majapahit in Java (1300 AD – 1500 AD); and
> Sri Vijaya in Sumatra (700 AD – 1300 AD).

Mokhtar stressed that the only civilisations that could have had linkages with Bujang Valley in 487 BC were far away in the Indus valley on the Indian sub-continent, and in China.

Interestingly enough, in June this year Mokhtar had led a 30-member expedition from CGAR to study the Kashmir Smast site in present-day Pakistan where the remains of the Gandhara Dynasty (990 BC – 11th century AD) are found.

The dynasty was part of the Indus Valley civilisation where the great Mohenjo Daro and Harappa societies existed.

Mokhtar is fascinated by the co-relations between the discoveries in the Gandhara area and ancient Kedah.

He stressed that the bricks and iron smelting systems found among the Gandhara seem to be the same as those in the Bujang Valley.

“I also want to know why the Gandhara people chose a hilly area in that era,” he said. “Here in Kedah the settlement was in a valley around Gunung Jerai (Kedah Peak).”

Incidentally, the notification of the OSL dating of 487 BC for the jetties came in just before the widely-reported announcement in late November of another discovery in Lumbini, Nepal.

Archaeologists found traces of a wooden structure dating back to the sixth century BC (around 550 BC) under a historic temple in Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautama Buddha.

Mokhtar noted the difference of only about a century between the Lumbini find and the jetties in Sungai Batu.

“I am very hopeful that we can now find materials in Sungai Batu even older than what was discovered in Lumbini,” he said.

Sophisticated architecture and maritime knowledge

One of the most exciting indications of the jetty discoveries is how progressive the culture and technology among Bujang Valley people were.

“You just imagine how they could have built this,” Mokhtar said, pointing to the ghaut-like steps of the jetty complex that had been crumpled under earth over time.

“Look at the floor. The bricks are arranged with gaps between them to allow water to seep down,” he said.

The Bujang Valley people also already had the technology for brick-making and had fairly progressive architectural know-how.

“They knew how to mix clay with sand. They knew the temperatures required - for brick-making it must be at least 600 degrees Celsius,” Mokhtar said.

“This means they had the architectural knowledge. It also points that they had a social hierarchy.”

Archaeologists also found trenches between two different jetty sections, as though demarcating those operated by different parties.

They also discovered upright bricks of wall-like remains which define where rooms or chambers, for storage or administrative purposes, were.

The complex is part of twelve buildings newly unearthed at Sungai Batu. Of these, eight have been confirmed to be jetties.

What is also intriguing is that the jetties point to a large river having flowed there 2,500 years ago. All that remains today is a shallow stream.

“It looks like a small port,” Mokhtar said. “It should have had a width of 100 metres, with water depth of 30 metres linked to Sungai Merbok,” he added.

The Sungai Merbok river leads to the Straits of Malacca where ships plied from the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.

Other ancient finds in Bujang Valley

The four jetty structures dated 487 BC are labelled by the archaeologists as SB1W, SB1R, SB1S and SB2G.

They all pre-date other exciting finds that have been progressively dug up in the Sungai Batu area since 2009. These include:

> an amazing geometric ritual monument dated 110AD (SB1B);
> a foundry for metal-making dated 50BC (SB2F); and
> another foundry site with charcoal dated 380BC (SB1ZY).

All these are parts of ruins found under mounds in a 4 sq km area in Sungai Batu first detected in 2007. Excavations began in 2009 after the mapping process was done.

Mokhtar said thus far a total of 143 sites have been identified in Sungai Batu, of which 46 have been dug up.

The Sungai Batu boundary is within the greater 1,000 sq km Bujang Valley area where at least 100 other sites were progressively discovered by British and Malaysian archaeologists from the 1840s till the 1980s.

However, these structures were more recent than those in Sungai Batu, generally dating between the 7th and 13th centuries AD.

Many of them were also religious in nature, with strong Hindu-Buddhist elements. They include religious structures called the ‘candi’ as well as hundreds of artefacts like beads, idols, pottery, ceramics and stone carvings.

(The recently demolished historical ‘candi’ at site 11 of the Bujang Valley is about 4km from Sungai Batu.)

It should be noted that the Sungai Batu remains were only detected recently - and not in the 70s and 80s - due to new sensor technology not available before.

Many artefacts already lost

Mokhtar also pointed to the tragic loss of many artefacts in Sungai Batu – due to pillaging and removal of topsoil for plantations - over the years.

There should have been many more remains, like beads and implements. “For sure people have stolen these,” he said.

In fact, almost one metre of topsoil, along with any artefacts in that layer, has been removed, he lamented.

“We arrived just in time in 2007. If we came any later, all these here would also have been gone.”

Over the centuries, forest grew over the structures, before it was cleared for a rubber estate, and later converted to oil palm plantation. There could also have been a kampong here at one time, Mokhtar added.

Such circumstances only add to the urgency of the situation, despite the painstaking and time-consuming work.

“Once we start excavating, we have to finish - whether it rains or shines,” Mokhtar stressed. “There is no break for us. Even during Hari Raya we were working here.”

With the secrets of the past now unearthing themselves, the frenetic desire may well see our archaeologists uncovering a much richer trove of Malaysian history, in the very heart of the Bujang Valley.

For more stories, go to www.fz.com, the website for freedom of expression and fairness in articulation.