Compositional Analysis of Ancient Bricks at Site 2211, Candi Pengkalan Bujang, Kedah

Zuliskandar Ramli,Yunus Sauman,Abdul Latif Samian,Othman Mohd Yatim,Adnan Jusoh,Nik Hassan Shuhaimi Nik Abd Rahman

doi:10.19026/rjaset.6.3690

Zuliskandar Ramli, Yunus Sauman + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.19026/rjaset.6.3690

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Abstract

Archaeological research at Candi Pengkalan Bujang (Site 2211) which is located at Pengkalan Bujang, Kedah was conducted in 2008 and was carried out by researchers from the National University of Malaysia (UKM). The site is believed to be a new site because based on the Quaritch-Wales report, the site based on its location is not in the report that was published by Quaritch-Wales. Based on its orientation of northeast-southwest, which is the same orientation as Candi Pengkalan Bujang (Site 22), hence this Candi or temple was of the Buddhist religion and was constructed between the 11<sup>th</sup> century to the 13<sup>th</sup> century AD. Composition analysis of bricks at this site was conducted to determine whether the source of the raw material is local, namely clay or otherwise. The technique used is the X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) technique to determine the mineral phases of the bricks and also the X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) technique to determine the major element and trace element content of the bricks. The mineral content found in the ancient bricks of Candi Pengkalan Bujang (Site 2211) consists of quartz, microcline, muscovite and minor minerals such as albite and geothite. Major element and trace element content also show that the raw materials used were derived from the basin of the Muda River, Bujang River and the surrounding areas of Kota sub-district. Indirectly, this study proves that local raw material was used to produce bricks at this site.

Highlights

In 2008, a team of researchers from the National University of Malaysia headed by Nik Hassan Shuhaimi Nik Abdul Rahman and assisted by Adi Taha and Zuliskandar Ramli had conducted excavations at Site 2211 which is believed to be a ancient temple
A large part of the temple was built of bricks; the brick composition analysis was performed to determine whether these bricks used local raw material or otherwise
A similar study was done on the site of Candi Sungai Mas (Ramli et al, 2012), Candi Pengkalan Bujang (Site 23) and Candi Bukit Pendiat (Site 17) in which all of them used local raw material (Zuliskandar et al, 2011, 2012)

Summary

Introduction

In 2008, a team of researchers from the National University of Malaysia headed by Nik Hassan Shuhaimi Nik Abdul Rahman and assisted by Adi Taha and Zuliskandar Ramli had conducted excavations at Site 2211 which is believed to be a ancient temple (candi). This excavation was assisted by a number of well-trained technical staff and assisted by the locals.

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