Archaeological investigation in the future capital city of Indonesia (IKN) at Sepaku, East Kalimantan

Abstract

The Indonesian government plans to relocate the capital city from Jakarta to Sepaku in East Kalimantan. So far, the location is known as a vast industrial-scale plantation area and one of the selected places for the transmigration program during the 1970s. Being planned as a constructed capital city from scratch, of course several studies have been carried out by experts on multiple aspects of the project. However, it is still lacking an archaeological assessment to calculate the loss of cultural heritage and historical information of the area. While history is obviously essential in the realm of identity, no archaeological study designed to contribute to the cultural development of the future capital city of Indonesia has been proposed. Our project recommends an array of archaeological surveys, followed by the excavation of two newly discovered archaeological sites in Sepaku. The study reveals a cave habitation site dated to 9–7 ka and a more recent iron workshop from the XV–XVII century AD. The two sites significantly contribute to revealing a complex past on the site of this future capital city, a past that was previously assumed to be only quite recent; typically based on the historical notes of the Paser Sultanate from the XVI century AD and remnants of Dutch-Japan colonization.