IN the previous write-up the importance of a narrative conforming to the latest data and findings was highlighted.
The latest data and findings also have to fit into the region’s bigger picture. If, as in the joke mentioned, the Hindus had found a fibre optic cable beneath an ancient temple, a comparative study of the region’s historical development of that era should tell us whether or not that finding fits into the whole logic.
Therefore, it is important for us to understand the evolution of man and the technology they had in order to understand the intricacies of Sungai Batu.
Like the rest of the world, the people of the Malay peninsula had undergone several eras or ages of development.
The early Palaeolithic age began about 1.83 million years ago, and this finding was made through the discovery of a 3 sq. km. Palaeolithic site at Bukit Bunuh in Lenggong, Perak.
This early Palaeolithic age lasted till about 10,000 years ago. The stone tools associated with this era are mostly Oldowan assemblages that included pounders, choppers and scrapers, made mainly by the Homo Habilis and Homo Erectus species of archaic human beings.
These tools were improved to Acheulean assemblages during the Upper Lower Palaeolithic stage by the early archaic Homo Sapiens to include hand axes, and other stone tools that had the ability to skin and butcher game, as well as cutting of wood.
The Perak Man existed during the Upper Palaeolithic stage. The now-resident of the Lenggong Archaeological Museum was an Australomelanesoid who lived in the area 10,000 years ago.
It was during his time that Mousterian stone tools were refined and took pointed forms or have sharpened blades and were attached wooden handles, and were used for hunting and used as spears.
Then came the Neolithic age. The people of this age produced more complex tools and accessories such as earthenware, bracelets and other adornments. They have beliefs, customs and rituals.
Unlike their Palaeolithic ancestors who bury their dead in foetal positions, the Neolithic people bury theirs straight.
They live in more permanent settlements, and most probably were engaged in farming as well as livestocks.
According to archaeological studies, the Neolithic age arrived in Malaysia around 4,500 years ago.
In the peninsular, Neolithic settlements date back between 4,300 and 2,000 years ago.
In Sabah and Sarawak they were around between 3,000 to 2,000 years ago. In Perak, the Neolithic people who lived in Gua Dayak in Lenggong, Perak were there around 1,610 B.P (B.P is Before Present, with its base set in 1950 C.E or Common Era), and that translates to around the year 340 C.E.
The Neolithic people of Gua Sagu near Kuantan, Pahang were there around 2,835 B.P or 885 B.C.E.
This goes to show that the people of the peninsular were still in a Neolithic age, and the dating of Sungai Batu as a civilisation that were already into iron smelting to 783 B.C.E certainly does not fit into the bigger picture.
Therefore, iron smelting in the Sungai Batu/Bujang Valley area could have begun in the second century C.E as it did in other areas of the ISEA region.
The Strait of Malacca was also not a preferred trade route during that period.
East-West trade mostly crossed the Isthmus of Kra in Thailand to get to the other side.
Iron ingots could not have been traded back then as the weight would have been a hindrance for the overland travel.
The Strait only became a trade route after the first century C.E.
While Roman artefacts have been found in northern Vietnam and in China, they all dated after the first century C.E and some came from the Antonine period (between 96 C.E to 192 C.E).
Trade between Rome and the East mostly centred in India and China where silk and spices were sought from.
Alexander the Great (356 B.C.E to 323 B.C.E) only made it up till the Hyphasis river (now the Beas river) in India before his army mutinied, refusing to march farther east.
He never made it to Ancient Kedah.
Meanwhile, the area only came under the Chola dynasty influence during the reign of Rajendra Chola I (between 1,014 C.E to 1,044 C.E), more than a millennium after the existence of the Bujang Valley maritime polity.
Even then, the absence of any Cholan or large Hindu structure of the period to substantiate the claim of a major Cholan influence, or the Indianisation of Kedah. Even the famous Candi Batu Pahat was dated to the 6th and 8th Centuries C.E.
The decline of the Bujang Valley’s maritime importance was due to two main factors— one, the environmental and geomorphological changes to sea levels in the area.
The lowering of sea levels causing the sea line to recede further west rendered the areas of Sungai Batu and Pengkalan Bujang inaccessible to traders. It is possible that after the decline of maritime trade, the ancient Malays shifted their economic activity to agriculture.
Two, the decline of the Srivijayan empire and the rise of Melaka as an important trading port in 1262 contributed to the end of the role of Ancient Kedah and especially the Bujang Valley as an important trading port.
The above shows that it is virtually illogical for a Neolithic community in the Bujang Valley to have begun its Metal Age era while the rest of the area was still populated by Neolithic people.
It is illogical for the Roman Empire to have traded with Ancient Kedah for iron ingots in 783 B.C.E as the trade route did not flow through the Strait of Malacca.
It is illogical for Alexander the Great to have set foot in Ancient Kedah as his farthest advance was to a river in northern India.
And it is illogical for the Bujang Valley industries to have been part of the Cholan empire as it had existed 1,000 years before Chola’s Rajaraja I was even born.
(This article was first published in The Mole )
Copy and paste: 21 January 2024 > 9 Rejab 1445H: 1.46 am
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