Abstract
This article proposes new historical perspectives arising from the findings in the Sungai Batu Archaeological Complex, Kedah, by the Centre for Global Archaeological Research, Universiti Sains Malaysia in 2009. Excavations in the complex unearthed the remains of iron smelting sites, wharves and other brick structures, dating back to the 2nd/3rd century AD. The discoveries of furnaces, tuyeres and iron slag attest to Sungai Batu’s role as the centre for primary iron production, employing the bloomery method. The study suggests that Ancient Kedah appeared as one of the hubs for the trans-Asiatic trade network with the rise of the iron industry, while its economic complexity grew steadily in successive centuries. The early emergence of Ancient Kedah was a development synchronous with the later phase of the Indian-Southeast Asian exchange network between the 2nd to the 4th century AD when inter and intra-regional trade intensified. Due to its favourable geological features, strategic location with a suitable ecozone, as well as being a thriving centre for primary iron production, Ancient Kedah emerged as an important harbour. It was this trading and industrial past, the article will argue, that contributed to the rise of other economic hubs within Ancient Kedah, such as Pengkalan Bujang and Kampung Sungai Mas, which eventually developed into entrepôts after the 5th century AD.
Highlights
Ancient Kedah was a group of various settlements and exchange sites located in the Bujang Valley, which developed as a polity from the 2nd to 14th century AD
The excavation and chronometric dating of the Sungai Batu sites have so far uncovered several iron smelting workshops dated from the 2nd/3rd century AD, employing the direct/bloomery method
Similar finds of the direct method of iron smelting activities have been reported in other Southeast Asian sites, such as Ban Don Phlong (3rd to 1st century BC) and Sriksetra (1st to 3rd century AD), while numerous more have been found in South India
Summary
Ancient Kedah was a group of various settlements and exchange sites located in the Bujang Valley, which developed as a polity from the 2nd to 14th century AD. The brick structures appear to have possessed the structural characteristics outlined by De Kerchove (1948), which is “the engineering structures projecting into the water of a nature of a pier, dike, embankment, constructed of timber, earth, stone or a combination thereof” The brick structures, such as at sites SB1B, SB1D, SB1Y and SB1A appear to have been located to the west of the iron-smelting sites of sites SB2H, SB1F, SB1G and SB1ZY (see Figure 16). The dates suggest that the periods of occupation of the wharf sites were at least partially contemporary with the iron smelting sites of SB2H, SB2A, SB1F, SB1G and SB1ZY The presence of these non-religious structures in the Sungai Batu Archaeological Complex and not in other Ancient Kedah sites was probably due to necessity. For the post-2nd/3rd century CE Bujang Valley, only the remains of iron smelting at Sungai Batu and a glass bead industry at Kampung Sungai Mas have been found, though in a considerably larger scale (Zuliskandar, Nik Hassan Shuhaimi, Adnan et al 2014; Naizatul Akma 2012; 2019)
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