Imagine that you are in Melaka just after it was conquered by Alfonso de Albuquerque. The year is 1512 CE. They were building the Fortaleza Velha, otherwise known as A Famosa. And then next to the fortress is a building similar to the Petronas Twin Towers.
Would that have made any sense?
When researchers from the Universiti Sains Malaysia headed by Professor Dr Mokhtar Saidin discovered a vast ancient iron-smelting complex in 2009 in Sungai Batu, Kedah, and carbon-dated samples showed that they had originated from the year 788 BCE, I was elated. It was proof that there was an advanced metal-age Malay civilisation that had existed 2,800 years ago.
But something was not right. When cross-referenced, there were things that did not jive.
Ancient Kedah was not located along the Maritime Silk Road that connected the Indian continent with China during that time. Trade circa 5th century BCE still passed overland through the Isthmus of Kra instead of through the Strait of Malacca. The latter only emerged as a trade route first century CE. It only flourished in the 6th and 7th centuries CE. And this is the view that even the UNESCO holds.
Therefore, iron-smelting industries could not have existed in Ancient Kedah before the first century CE. We were still very much a bunch of Neolithic people in 788 BCE. All the other archaeological sites in the peninsula of that era, when cross-referenced, confirmed that fact.
Yes, we are proud that there was a very important ancient entrepôt located in Kedah’s Bujang Valley, but that came almost a full millennium later.
In an interview with the New Straits Times (Ancient Seaport of Sg Batu, NST, May 23, 2016), Dr Mokhtar said that the brick riverside jetty, ritual monuments (candi) were built in the 2nd century CE, while the iron smelting sites were used from the 1st century CE.
So, it came as both a surprise and a shock when Dr Mokhtar told Channel News Asia (Kedah Has Southeast Asia’s Oldest Civilisation and Archaeologists Barely Know Its Complete History, CNA, June 2, 2023, updated June 4, 2023) that the Sungai Batu site dates back to 788 BCE.
Not only that, he even went on to mention an unsupported point that the name Qalah – the ancient Arabic name for Kedah – is inscribed in ancient Mesopotamian scripts from 1,300 BCE. The Assyrian King Shalmaneser I founded Qalah (also spelt Kalah or Kalhu, and Calah in the Bible).
An inscription of the script in the Akkadian language can be found in the British Museum which reads as follows:
“Shalmaneser, great king, strong king, king of the universe, king of Assyria, son of Ashurnasirpal (II), great king, strong king, king of the universe, king of Assyria, son of Tukultï-Ninurta (II), who was also king of the universe and king of Assyria: construction of the Ziqqurat of Calah.” (Brick of Shalmaneser III, lines 1 to 7).
If indeed Shalmaneser I ordered the construction of a Ziqqurat in Ancient Kedah, if Calah is indeed Kedah, then three questions need to be answered. First, where is the Ziggurat or its remnants? Second, why do archaeologists and historians all over the world agree that Calah is now Nimrud, Iraq? Third, Shalmaneser I ruled over Assyria in 13 century BCE. Sungai Batu, as claimed, existed only in 7th century BCE. Why is there a 500-year discrepancy?
Just as we have Kota Bharu in Kelantan, we also have a Kota Bharu in Perak. We have at least four more in Indonesia. When the Imperial Japanese Army landed in Kota Bharu on December 8, 1942, I am positive that that did not happen in Perak, just as Calah or Kalah, or Qalah mentioned either in the Brick of Shalmaneser or in the Bible is not referenced to Ancient Kedah.
Furthermore, researches show that trade between Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt only occurred around 400 BCE while trade with the Indus Valley happened around 300 BCE. It is very doubtful that they had any trade links with Ancient Kedah in 788 BCE.
On the claim made by Dr Mokhtar that there has not been any researcher doing work at the Sungai Batu site, the Global Archaeology Research Centre at the Universiti Sains Malaysia has clarified with CNA that there is a team that is continuing Dr Mokhtar’s legacy headed by protohistorian Dr Nasha Rodziadi Khaw. Dr Nasha is also an expert on early civilisations in Malaysia and Southeast Asia.
I was also told by Dr Nasha, when I met him early in June 2023 at the USM, that the work continues with whatever evidences and artefacts that have been collected thus far. Out of 97 sites identified in Sungai Batu, 54 have been excavated. The other 43 will be left for future researches and when the technology has improved.
No ancient ships have ever been found, let alone seen. They had found an artefact, a nail, that could have been used on ships but could also have been used on other wooden structures. No excavation was ever done because they could not confirm if there actually are ancient vessels in the swampy area near the ancient riverside jetty. Excavations are expensive, and funds are also needed at other sites such as at Bukit Choras, some 45 kilometres to the north.
The four samples that were dated during Dr Mokhtar’s excavation in 2009 have been identified as outliers – in archaeology-speak, anomalies or aberrations. They were found among the hundreds of samples from one of 54 excavated sites, while the rest of the sites have been dated to around 2 CE when technologically-advanced dating was done in 2019.
Dr Mokhtar was still two years away from retirement, and should know about this as he was still the Director of the Global Archaeological Research Centre then.
When we started off with the discovery of the Sungai Batu sites in 2009, we were delighted that it was dated to 788 BCE. But 10 years later, with advanced technology, peer reviews and cross-references, this has now become 2AD.
Therefore, it is only prudent to save the other 43 sites for a future research using more advanced methods.
We are very proud of Dr Mokhtar’s discovery of the ancient iron-smelting area in Sungai Batu, but until new evidences surface we have to accept the reality that the area only became an industrial trading port after 1 CE, not 788 BCE.
Yes, there was an advanced Malay civilisation that was involved in a massive iron-smelting industry in the Bujang Valley, but that was 2,000 years ago, not 2,800 years ago, and they were certainly not linked to Mesopotamia.
The fact is that those ancient Malays were a tolerant, progressive and welcoming lot, allowing traders from the Indian continent to come trade, stay, and pray.
That is the spirit that we should all try to emulate in our quest of nation building.
(This article was first published by The Mole) and updated locally at 5.42pm, June 5, 2023).
Copy and paste: 21 January 2024 > 9 Rejab 1445H: 2.02 am
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