Indonesian Heritage Vol 1-6-23

8/4/2019 Indonesian Heritage Vol 1-6-23

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INDONESIA: Digging Up Our Ancient Past T he bones of some of the earliest humans lie deep in the earth of, Indonesia. For over a million years, Indonesia has been the sceneof human activity. Although ancient fossils have also been found inremote parts of Africa and China, Indonesia possesses the longestcontinuous record of human occupation in the world, from theformation of early humans through the early agricultural phase, throughthe development of technology for working bronze and iron, into the age ofclassical art, into the Islamic era, the colonial phase, and finallyindependence af ter World War II. Although no single archaeological sitecontains evidence from all the phases of Indonesian history, similar sites fromall phases can be found lying close to one another If such a site existed, itwould contain many layers. .

Layers ofAncient Civ ili sa tionsImagine for a moment that you are an archaeologist excavating such a hypotheticalsite on one of the islands in western Indonesia, such as Java, Bali, or Sumatra. (Ofcourse the results would be very different in eastern Indonesia, which was furtherfrom the main densely-populated centres of early history.) In the uppermost layer ofsoil, just beneath the grass roots, you would find a mixture of glass, metal, charcoal,bone, and pottery: the detritus of early industrial life from the 19th and 20thcenturies. As you dug deeper, you would find that the bones and plant remainswould soon disappear. The hot and wet Indonesian climate has harsh effects onorganic remains, ensuring that they quickly return to the soil from which theyoriginally grew. Even iron after two or three centuries is usually reduced to an illdefined lump of rust. One particularly troublesome result of t his climate's effect onthe study of the past is that no written documents except those specially engravedon such hard materials as stone, bronze, silver, or gold, would be found.At the top of this early modern layer, some artifacts such as coins and potterywould bear traces of European presence. Probing this layer more deeply, Europeanartifacts would become increasingly rare until they eventually ceased to appear. Wewould now be at the level corresponding to approximately the year 1600 AD.Although European artifacts would no longer be found, digging deeper we wouldcontinue to find much evidence of active urban life, a diversity of industrial activity,and international trade. Sherds of pottery would be the most common artifacts.They would show that mailY forms of pottery were made by Indonesian craftsworkers, and that many more types were imported from China. Chinese and locallyminted coins were widely used in daily life. Evidence of many kinds of meta lworkingby specialised smiths would also be found. You might also discover clay sp indlewhorls , indications of the importance of textile sp inning and weaving in the localeconomy and society. Like the books and papers of this time, however, the

elaborately woven cloths themselves have long ago rotted alNay.Although we would have to be extremely lucky to find a fragment of aninscribed stone. The most probable type of inscription we could find at thisdepth would be an early Islamic tombstone. By 1600 Islam had become therel igion of the major ity of Indonesians. Traces of early Islam might alsoinclude coins with Arabic script issued by one of the Indonesian kingdoms.As you continued your excavation, the next layer of soil would representthe transitional period to Islam from earlier Buddhist, Hindu, and indigenousreligious traditions. Islamic artifacts would continue to be found down to the

level representing the year 1300 AD , but in most of this stratum the majority ofevidence would show that the site s inhabitants had been devotees of non Islamic deities which would also be unfamiliar to most modern Buddhists orHindus. During the late Classic period, Indonesians had turned to theworship of gods associated with a cult of immortality and fe rtility. Although

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their names were adopted from India, their statues and attributes had evolvedlocally in such as way that they became unrecognisable to non-IndonesiansStatues would be rare in this layer in any case. In the late Classic period,many Indonesians believed that statues were not needed for enlightenment.Only when we reached the level of the 14th century would statues of stonebegin to become more common. We might find inscriptions on stone or bronze; inorder to read them we would have to learn a script based on an alphabet importedfrom India a thousand years previously which then evolved many local va riants indifferent parts of Indonesia. These documents would mainly concern donationsmade by nobility to religious establishments. From them we could draw someconclusions regarding the structure of the kingdom and the range of occupations,but only in exceptional cases would we be able to read any records of actualevents. We would neve r obtain a description of such aspects of life as theappearance of the houses of the common people or what they wore; documentsfoc us on the religious concerns of the royalty. Except for accounts from Chinese andArab visitors, only our archaeological research can teach us about the conditions inwh ich most Indonesians lived.Chinese coins would continue to appear right down to 1300 AD. There would bea period without Chinese pottery, however. Instead Indonesian pottery would beaccompanied by glazed ceramics from Thailand and Vietnam. This laye r wouldcorrespond to the 15th century, when China went through an isolationist period, an dother Southeast Asian ceramic producers actively pursued Indonesian markets,The vast majority of artifacts found wouldbear the imprint of the local culture characteristic of whicheve r area of Indonesia wewere excavating in . Most pottery was locallymade. In Sumatra it would be decorated withcarving and stamped designs. In Java it mightbe painted red and polished until it gleamed .Despite this local character of the artifactassemblage, most sites in Indonesia, even asfar east as Maluku, as far west as Sumatra,might provide you with one or two artifactsbearing the cultural imprint of Java, Beginningin the late 13th century, Java rose to become the dominant political force in theArchipelago. Java was probably more densely populated than other parts of Indo nesia , and the idea of unifying the vast area from Sumatra and the Malay Peninsulato the edge of the western Pacific already seemed like a logical and viable objective.This goal was in fact achieved by the kingdom of Majapahit during the 14th century,Although the kingdom was unable to create a lasting framework for centralisedadministration, the image of the archipelago as a cultural and political unit persistedfor the next 600 years, through periods of fragmentation and colonial rule , untilMa japahit's embryonic concept of a unified nusantara was reincarnated in 1945.

If we found any rema ins of buildings, tlley would be made of brick or stone. Wecould be almost completely certain that they were once temples. Other thantemples, only one other type of structure was built of stone or brick in pre-modernIndonesia: bathing places. Some elaborate examples were built in Java, Sumatraand Bali as communal areas where people obtained water for househould use aswell as for bathing; they may have had some religious functions as well. Even thepalaces of kings must have been made entirely of wood ; no archaeologist has everdiscovered the site of an ancient Indonesian palace!Only in a few sites in east Java have archaeologists found remains of dwellingareas. We do not yet know who lived in these houses. The best guess is that thehabitation sites wtl ich we have found so far, wittl brick or stone floors and drains forwater, wells, and such appurtenances as piggy banks , belonged to anurban semi-elite, analogous to what today might be termed the "middleclass". City life in Java and Sumatra seems to have begun in the 13thor early 14th century, Archaeologically, city life can be recognised bysuch features as housing made of semi-permanent materials, withevidence of some mass-produced household items. Earlier than this,we find no evidence fo r such a li festyle in Indonesia,Let us now dig deepel', beneath the 14th century layer. The nextstratum, representing the 13th cen.tury , would not appear much

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show that Sumatra formed part of an artistic style identi fied with the internationalBuddhist network of travel and trade covering an enormous triangular area with onecorner in north western India, another in Japan, and the third in Bal i.In Java, we would be most likely to find frag ments of religious monuments andstatues made from local volcanic rock called andesite. These migh t be either Buddhist or Hindu. Their styles would be relat ed to those of va rious regions of southAs ia, from Sri Lanka to Bengal, but with a quality of carving and design which is atleas t equal to the fine st examples from the Il omeland of those two religions. Otherev idence of contact with the mainland of Asia would belimited: inscriptions in scripts related to those of Indiabut already showing much local development; the useof local languages with much admixture from Sanskrit ;and perhaps in tile very topmost part of the laye r someChinese ceramics, Otllerwise the data would beconsistent witll tile interpretation that a highly artisticculture with strong affinities to the peoples of thePol yn esian area of the Pacific had become enamouredof the artistic possibilities offered by the myths andsymbols of south Asia, much as the peoples of eastAs ia were also doing with Buddhism at the same time, or in the same way as Eu ropehad adopted myths and symbols of Christanity a thousand years ea rlier.We would also be confronted with the unfortunate problem that most of ourarchaeological information is only relevant to the activities of a small elite segment ofsociety. We still need to refine our techniques and perform many more excavations

before we can draw conc lusions regarding the lives of the bulk of Indonesia'spopUlation , the masses who in fact were responsible for most of the achievementsreflected in the archaeological record .In this layer, we ha ve no evidence of urbanisation. This situation, in whichevidence of skillful sculpture and monumental art are plentiful, but no habitationremains are found, is not unknown, It is also characteristic of the phase of earlyEg yptian civilisation when the largest pyramids were built. "C ivilisationwithout cities" is a recognised phenomenon in the ancient world,Economically, coirlage was already in use at this period, locally made ofgold and silver. This med ium of excllange was used down to the leve l ofthe local market place, according to inscriptions, but cannot have beenvery easy to operate. Even a small silver coin was worth a lot in terms ofgoods or services, Some scholars th ink these coins were mainly used for

ritual purposes, but other data implies that they were also used in dailyexchanges between common people,

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different from the 14th century above it. It would contain similar artifacts:fragments of temples , evidence of mucll trade with China, Javaneseexpansionism, and vigorous local cultures. At the bottom of this laye r,represen ti ng tile ear ly 13th century, we \Jvou ld see a sudden change.Chinese coins would practically vanish, although Chinese porcelain wouldcontinue to appear. If we wem digging on Java, we would not see an yruins of any temples , but on Sumatra we would hope to discover traces oflarge Buddhist sanctuaries. On Java, we would find more and betterexamples of re ligious statuary, Buddhist and Hindu, tllan in later times, eitherca rved from stone or made from beau ti fully-cast bronze. On some of these bronzesor on stone slabs we would also find ins criptions ca rv ed in ornate letters, Noev idence of middle-class urban housing from tllis period has yet emerged, It mayhave been built of perishable materials: wood and thatcll .The 11 th and 12th centuries marked a different kind of civ ilisation in Indonesia, Aswe dig through the level deposited between 1200 AD and 1000 AD, we would seesigns that a variety of smal l ki ng doms co-ex isted. This was no t a t ime of poverty; inadd it ion to the statuar'y, inscriptions, and Sumatran temples, we have manuscripts ofmany works of literat ure which were written during th is period, Many sites provideev idence that maritime trade was also flourishing during tll is period. Thus the age ofpolitical disunity was not accompanied by economic or cultural stagnation; insteadth is was a period of great artistic, intellectual, commercial, and re ligious activity.

At a deptll corresponding to around 1000 AD (in Sumatra) or 900 AD (in Java) wewill agai n discover artistic and epigraphic evidence of greater political unity. InSumatra remains of temples will be rare , but statues mainly of Buddhist deities will


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This laye r, corresponding to the Early Classic phase (600 AD to 900 AD), is arather deep one. It was a time of great artistic achievements and probably muchsocial activity, but we are much less informed about the latter than the former.If we continued to probe even deeper in the pit, we would reach the depthcorresponding to about 600 AD, in most parts of Indonesia we would lose mostevidence of contact with the world beyond Southeast Asia. Statues of Buddhistand Hindu deities would vanish, as would written inscription s. Only a few types ofartifacts would provide evidence that Indonesians were already trading with themore distant parts of the world. We might howeve r find a few sherds of pottery orglass and stone beads from south Asia, as evidence that trade with that part of theworld began several hundred years before the artistic and literary aspects of thatcivilisation were incorporated into the Indonesian repertoire.Most of our data from the protohistGric and late prehistoric era would consist ofceremonial objects such as large bronze items in a style which we might recogniseas being found also as far north as Vietnam; this style is called Dong Son, after aVietnamese site. For the first time, we might find someburials; the practice of burying the dead, sometimes withrich burial offerings, was typical of much of Indonesia untilthe Early Classic period. These offerings might consist ofbeautifully worked and polished stones in the form ofadzes, or gold foil decorations made from pure gold

nuggets beaten into the shape of a human fa ce.Continuing our hypothetical excavation below theprotohistoric, we enter the time of prehistory. The top ofthis layer would be different, depending on which part ofIndonesia we were digging in. In the eastern part of the Archipelago, we mightdiscover large burial sites witll urns and ceramic offerings: in the western area, wemight find graves lined with slabs of stone painted with scenes from local mythology.Yet deeper down, we would see litttle more with the naked eye than some stonetools, or possibly some worked bone harpoon points. If we used more elaboratescientific techniques, however, such as froth flotation or phytolith analysis (the studyof sm all particles of silica from the stems of grasses) , we might be able to discoversomething of the ways in which Indonesians were using plants. These wouldrepresent traces of early farmers who bred wild fruits, seeds, roots, and animals todomesticate sources of food now found in many parts of the world. Be cause theIndonesian climate is hot and wet, we would not find many preserved specimens oforganic material: the evidence for this is indirect. Not much research of tllis type hasyet been conducted in Indonesia, but the potential for such studies is great.For the period between 2,500 and 10,000 years ago, we would find the samesorts of artifacts. At the 1O,OOO-year old boundary, we would see evidence of adifferent climate. During most of the past one mill io n years, Indonesia was drierand cooler than today. It also had mLich more dry land: the sea level waslower, and Java, Borneo and Sumatra were all part of the mainland Asia.Data for the period over 10,000 years ago is sparse. Only in parts ofce ntral and east Java has much evidence been found of earlier human acti vity. Beyond 40,000 years ago, we would find bones of pre-modern humans,and in a very few cases their artifacts . We could pursue this research a longway dow n: if the so il of our imaginary site co ntained laye rs from all ofprehistory, here would be the million-year-old fossilised bones of some ofmankind s earlier ancestors.Accomplishments and ChallengesIn the pages of the book before you, this story is told in the opposite order,starting from the eal'liest times and proceeding until the coming of theEuropeans. It has not been possible to present all the data available in thefew pages of this book. The autilors have endeavoured to select the mostimportant and rel iable information available, but in many cases they havenoted that until further discoveries are macle , certain basic questions cannot be answel'8d. Ne ve rtheless , the general outlines of the story of humanaffairs in this Arch ipelago are much clearer tllan they were just a few yearsago. We Ilope that readers with little or no previoLis knowledge of Indonesiawill fini sh this book with a new appreciation fo r tile accomplishments of thesegment of man ki nd who have made this Archipelago their home.

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APPROXIMATE DATES2,000,000 -10,000 BCTECHNOLOGYWood was probably the most impo rt antmateria l but no exa mptes survive. Stonetools inc lude targe flakes, hammer s, andbolas. large gaps in data exist , manyisla nds remain to be exptored.

ARCHITECTURENo preserved examples

LITERATURENo preserved examples.

POLITICSProbably no units larger than bandsof about 30 or 40 individuals. Leadershipbased largely on seniority.

ARTNo preserved examples.

SOCIAL CONDITIONSNo diflerentiation of social groups.

ECONOMICSThe enti re band of 30 to 40 peopleprobably formed the basic subsistenceunit.

RELIGIONNo data ; possible evolution of beliefin the power of ancestors.

PREHISTORY

10,000 BC - 200 AD

SumalraHlhs; bone loo is; Toallan po ints ,Do ng Son drums , iron, go ld used In nativeuna lloyed fo rm , Agric ultu re dome stica tio nat main crops (rice, taro , yam, banana ,coconut, sugarcan e) and anim als (dog,bu llalo, chicken, duck , goat. pig).Irriga ti on sys tems , te rrac ing .

Slab graves: Pasem ah, Gunu ng Kldul ,Bo ndowoso. Terraced megalithic sites:lee uw ll ang , Mates lh , Pa sirangin.

Ihe saddle-shaped roolscharac teristic of modern Sumatraand Sulawes i evolved during this time .

No preserved examples .

Probable evolution of leadership positions based on prowe ss of individuals .

Paintings on caves and slab graves :Pasemah , Maros (South Sulawesi).Slone sculptures: Pasemah. Largeceremonial bronze axes, Java . Stonebracelets and beads.

By the end 01 the period, the re is evidencefor some kind of status diflerenliation,based on the existence of some burialswhich are much wealthier than others.Some of these status dillerences mayhave been inherited.

By the end at the period , long distancetrade with India had begun. The mainmotivation for this trade was probablythe urge to acquire rare objects as statussymbols .

Increasing elaborate cult of the dead.The large bronze drums probably served

some kind at re lig ious function , possibly. connected wilh fertility and rain-making

200 AD - 600 AD

Increasing use of iron for agricullura ltool s. All oying of gold . Increasinglysoph isticated pottery production . Lost waxcasting of bronze .

Terraced megalithic sites continue .Possibly some early permanentarchitecture in stone or brick Iscor, tructed during this per iod.

Oldesl preserved Indonesian wr iting :roya l edicts from east Kalimantan andWesl Java. Introduct ion of Sanskritlanguage and Pallava script from India.

Earlies t known kingdom in Indonesia :Tarumanagara in West Java . King shave ritual importance butlitlle realpowe r outs ide the environs of theircourts . Stand ing armies donot exist.Pol it ies are held together by char isma .

Earliest classic sculpture : bronze Buddhaimages from Sulawesi and "East Java ,Early Visnu images from West Java .

Consolidation 01 permanenl divisionof society into nobility and common ers.The boundaries between these categorieshowever remain permeable.

Trade with China begins . Tributary systemof relations with China is established .Wealth from trade becomes an importanttool 01 aspiring rulers .

Hinduism and Buddhism gain foothold salong the trade routes . In many areasPrec lassic religious tradition continue .


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600 AD - 900 AD

Advances inship-building . Organisalionallechnical skills for the construction oflarge stone monumenls . Stone brickedillces erected. Some pottery madeusing Ihe potter 'swheel. Granulationand filigree in gold-working .

Indonesiasgreatesl ancient monumenls,Borobudur and Prambanan are buillin Cenlral Java , along w th hundreds01 smaller shrines . Brick structuresare ereced in soulh Sumatra . All olhe rarchilecture continue 10 be buillof perishable malerial .

TheIndaaep ics , Mahabharata andRamayana , are ranslaled inlo OldJavanese . Buddhist scriptures in Sanskr ilare wdely disseminaled . The oldestsurviv ing Buddhist texts written inIndonesia . the Sang Hyang Kamahayanikanis composed .

Two extended families , Ihe BuddhislSailendra and the Hindu Sanjaya , contendlor power in Java and Sumatra. The rivalryin Java is resolved by intermarriage .The Sailendra continue to rule in Sriwi jaya .

Javanese sculplors creale the medium ofthe extended narrative relief at Borobudur.Exquisile saluary of bronze , silver,and gold are cas!. Monumenlal stonesculplures are erected in Cenlral Javaand South Sumatra .

Rulers begin 10 identify themselves ashaving special relalions with deities .They do not yel claim to be gods . The gapbelween nobility and commoners growswider. Occupational specialisationbecomes increaSingly signilicanl.

Locally minled gold and si lver coinsappear. Periodic markets becomewidespread. Sriwijaya and Malaramjoslle lor control over internationalmaritime Iradein Southeasl Asia .

Devotional Hinduism , with Siva and Vsnu ,Ihe mosl popular deities , and MahayanaBuddh ism dominate the t ourts andincreasingly permeate the lives 01vi llagers .

900 AD - 1250 AD

Larger irrigati on and tlood-conlrolsystems are buill in Java . Specialisediron-working sites arise in the OulerIslands to supply iron-poor Java .

Brick temples at Sumalra : PadangLaw as; Muara Takus and MuaraJambi.

The golden age of Kad iri court litera lure .The kakawin genre is develop ed10 a peak . Mpu Sedah and Mpu Panuluhcomprise Iheir versi on of IheBharalayuddha . Ornamental Kadiri scriplis created . Other greal works suchas Ihe Smaradahana are also written.

Anak Wungsu rules Bali. The centralJavanese kingdom vanishes . New centresappear in Ea sl Java. The most vital isKadir i. In Sumatra, Sriwijaya is repl acedby Mal ayu and other smaller kingdoms .

Kadiri sculpture deviates Irom the earliercentral Java style: more rigid , funereal inappearance. Indirect eviden ce suggeststhat the statues were bel ieved to depictvessels for the souls 01 departed rulers,who were sometimes thought 10 bereincarnated gods.

Bureaucracy becomes more high iydeveloped . Status of intellectuals rises .Military organisalion becomes moreinstitutionalised. Government becomes mOrlinvolved in water contro l and Inlandtranspo rt .

Chinese Imm igrants begin to eslablishsettlements in Indones!a. Many newports begin 10 develop. Chi nese colnsbecome an imp orlant currency In someareas . Taxation becomes more complex .

Ka diri rulers Idenlify themselves bothwith Visnu and apersonal deT!y Of theirown Choice . Buddhism of an increaSin glyesol er ic characler spreads in Sumatra .

LATE CLASSIC

1250 AD - 1500 AD

Mass production methods Institutedfor metal and pottery work ing.Paper- making . The kris becomesan important weapon and symbol.

Construction of temples of brick andstone rea:ppears in Java . The styles ofconstruction differ significantly fromthose of the earlier period. Importantstructures are built over much of EastJava. The terra ced temp les buill onmountain slopes become popular latern the period .

The Desawarn ana is composed byPrapanca , describing the kingdomof Majapahit in 1365 . Other importantworks from th is period include theKorawasrama and Nawaruci , whi chglorify Bima and his search lor theelixir 01 immortality.

The kingdom of Singasari reun ifies muchof east Java, and then continues to expanduntil it has exlended suzerainty overthe most important kingdom in Sumatra ,Malayu . Singasari is succeeded byMajapahit , wh ich becomes the largestkingdom in ancient Indonesian history.

Bronze sculpture practically dies out earlyin the Ma japah it era . Stone sculpturedec lines as well , apparently the result 01the introduction of new relig ious bel iefs .Akind 01 middle-class art medium , theterrac otta figurine, appears in Majapahi t'scapital.

Many pe op le ea rn their l iVng by se llingIheir servi ces for wa ges. The po rls alongthe north coast 01Java and the easi coast 01SUmatra become high ly prosperou s. Coastalpopulations become hele ro genous mlx! uresof people Irom ma ny pa rts of Indon esia andneighbouring countries .

China becomes more isolat ion is l aftsr1368 , but Ira de links with Ind ia andoh er paris of Southeast Asia expandIn t ompensa tion . ChInese co inagebecomes the main medium 01 ex change.

The Sivasiddhanta philoso phy 01 Hnduismmakes a strong impact In Java and BatI.In this be liel , stalu es are unnecessarylor enlig hlenmen t. Isl am beg ins to makeconverts in north Sumatra and alongthe north coasl of Java .

EARLY ISLAMIC

1500 AD -1600 AD

Early use 01 firearms . Probablyimported from the Near East.

Major lorms of preserved monuments aremosques , tomb complexes , and palaces .Structures such as split and linteledgateways and multi-tiered roofs arecarried over from pre-Islamic times.Palace gardens Irom a slightly laterper iod in Cirebon and Yogyakarta providesome impression of this important lorm.

The oldes t preserved Islamic literaturein Indonesia dates from the 16th century.It cons ists mainly of philosophicalspeculation on the nature of therelationship between God and man. Whilemystical in orientation , most of the earlyliterature is not heterodox, in that itprese rves the concept of dualism.

New kingdoms such as Demak, Banten ,and Cirebon arise on Java 's north coast.Majapahit fades into oblivion by about1527 . The kingdom 01 Mataram inhinterland central Java soon re-asserts tharegion's predominance . In SulaweSi , Goaflourishes due to its key position on thespice routes .Islamic prohibitions against portrayingliving beings are incorporaled graduafly .Camouflaged beings such as tortoises ,Hanuman and Garuda are still viSible inearly sites such as Sendang Duwur,Demak, and Mantingan. Important motifsinclude winged gateways , hermit'spavilions and Mount Meru .

Urbanisation becomes highly developed . Bythe end of the 16th century Indonesia is alleast as urbanised as Europe. Tradeflouri shes, and occupational spec ialisationintensi fies. !n most areas labour is scarceand expensive. Land is stili plen liful , so Ihaldissatis fied rural dwellers could move away .

Coinage is in widespread use. Economicrelations hips are a majo r determinant ofsocial slruclure. Patl on- clienl relat ionsh ilbased on t reditor-debtor ties 3re afunda mental feal ure of most Indonesiansoci elles which imp resses ea rly Eu rop eanohserve rs .

Isla mspreads gradually and largelyl l By1500 Islam bec omes

dominant In coa stal par iS . During Ihe16th century it begins 10 penetrat e theagricultu ral hinterlan ds and in the proces :new vari ants appear incorporalin gpre- Is lamic bel ief, in the pOle ntial unityof man and God.


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Faces of Indone.fian Archaeology.Th omas StfllJtjrlld R{(ifles sIrO 'ill'etl!!/rrtl ill/cresl ill illdonesiall ardweologl'dillil/g l!te!tliefperiod of IJriliyir mle(")//11/:11-16. Iml ({II illz-!taeologicaiSrr,:ia ill'as 1101 eSlo/JIiJlted 1IIIIil liteearl)' 201!t 1eI11111y. 'f'lte people depiiledhtll ' {Irc some of lire prum illl'lllf{/'(-Itaeologisls ,dlo l/fIve (f/i/lriltl/letl/ lllId 100111' /.:/lofc1edgeof (I/ICiml hll/ollesia.

Candi LaraJonggrang ,from Rajjles'History ofJava.Tlte /Votiollal Researdt CtJllre jori1rdl{/ fology traces ils f.lltcesll:Y If! ( IJ Iassocialioll founder! ill titt' lale 1800s10 excovote litis site. DiredolS ( ~ lite(,'f'IIln! //{{ve iudllded R. Soe/:l/lollo.Salya'iQ}lli SlIIeiJllflJl. R . I ~ SOtjOIlf! ,(lild Hasall Mli arifAm/I((I)'. SillceJ975 IIIOl/ll111eltlS I/{/s VI'fI I I/l/r/er litecare of lite DilY'CIO/lileforCOllserv{(lion [flIr/ Restn ratio fl , lleadedj ln l by U/m 'ljffllr/I'{/J({smita (tlul.fllcreer/ed /l)' 1 Gllsli l f I , [ t / 1 AmNII.

LAND, PEOPLE AND HISTORY The study of Indonesia 's ancient history is important not only for its ownsake, but also because it has general lessons to teach mankind. The timespanned by the record of human activity in Inqonesia is unparallelled; it coversthe entire range of human existence, beginning over one million years agothrough the intermediate periods from the introduction of agriculture andvillage life to the age of sophisticated maritime trade, which by the 12thcentury affected the lives of most Indonesians. Another source of Indonesia 'sdistinctiveness stems from the country's unique geographical setting . It is theworld's largest archipelago, whose cultures have evolved along parallel butseparate tracks in an adaptive relationship with the resources available in eachgeographic unit of each island . This chapter outlines the natural setting inwhich Indonesia's cultures have developed. The image presented heredisplays many gaps, which are certain to be augmented by future research.

Traditional Indonesian societies believed that it was important to rememberthe past. Ancient inscriptions record events and date them according to anelaborate calendrical system. Indonesian literary genres portray andmanipulate the past in various ways to provide lessons for later generations.Indonesian societies were not typified by a single form of Ilistoricalconsciousness. Some emphasised the repetitive nature of events. Othersassumed that history is a linear progression toward a specific conclusion .

In a nation with a written history spanning over 1,500 years , it is inevitablethat important changes in historical consciousness have occurred. Writtenrecords are rare at best in Indonesia, and some regions lack them completely.No doubt many more documents once existed, but when circumstanceschanged and old moral frameworks were replaced by new ones , old writingswere considered irrelevant and allowed to vanish. This did not mean thatmanuscripts were actively destroyed; in the Indonesian climate, anymanuscript not laboriously recopied every few generations decays anddisappears . Warfare and other disasters such as fires have ensured that onlya few precious documents have survived as witnesses to Indonesia's past.

Archaeological research in Indonesia was actively pursued during the1920s. In the 1930s the worldwide economic downturn hindered progress inthis field. In the 1940s World War II and the Indonesian revolution had an evenmore disastrous effect. Now Indonesian archaeologists are doing much tomake up for lost time.


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these except Sulawesi lie on the Sunda Shelf, a suboceanic extension of the As ian continent . The secondunit is made up of the Lesser Sundas cons isting ofthe is lands to the southeast, stretching from Lombokto Timor, They include Sumbawa, Sumba, Komodo,Flores, Alor, Savu and Lembata, The Maluku(Moluccas) is lands make up the third area . Theycomprise Halmahera, Ternate and Tidore, as we ll asSeram and Ambon, and numerous smaller islands,This region is often referred to as the Spice Islands.

Irian Jaya, the western part of !'Jew Guinea comprisesthe fourth area, and tog et her with the Aru is lands ofMaluku and the Austra lia n continent, 'lies on theSahul Shelf.Environmental ConditionsIndonesia's islands all fall within the equatorialclimatic zone, with an equable temperature , However,due to its situation between th e monsoonal Asianregions and the landmass of Australia, which is twothirds desert , Indonesia is influenced by bothmonsoon and trade winds, Geologica lly, Indonesia isalso very comple x, Vo lcanic and non-volcanicformations are intertwined, and topographic featuresproduce marked local differences in soils and rainfall, which va ries between 712 and 4,156 millimetresper year depending on the region , Hea vy rainfall

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10/18

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rrequently ca uses rivers to swell and flood the surroun ding lowlands. Indonesia belongs to the mostseismica lly-act ive area in the world, registering about500 ea r1 hq uakes per yea r. For humans livin g exposedto Ihese vicissitudes, there is compensation for thedisastrous erupt ions and floods in the form of so ilfertility which is frequently replenished. Not surprisingly, the most dangerous volcan ic areasand river courses are usually very populous.Ecological DiversityCond itions vary greatly from island to island, andoften within an island. Ove rcul tiva ted and overpopulated is lan ds like Java and Ba li are ju xtaposed toSumatra and Kalimantan with their enormous Jungle sthat were until recent ly almost virgin. Smaller islandsNi th arid areas requiring special irrigation measures

Comparison of the Sizes 01 IndoneSia and Europe.-

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contrast with Su lawesi with its seasona lly heavyrainfall. Differences in flora and fauna are likewisenotable. In 1860 Alfred Russel Wa llace was struckby the fa ct that the wi ldlife of the western part ofIndonesia is predominantly Asian, whereas theeastern islands are dominated by typically Australianspecies of plants and animals. Th is observation gaverise to the famous 'Wallace Line'. His theory has

LAND. PEOPLE AND HIST ORY

I'ifIflge LifeFor mild! of fndoll f'sia spopulatiof!, sorial life.>Iill rt'Vo/ves arOllTld tlte{yrlr of so "" illg,tromplflllti llg, au/nOJ"",estill,l!. rice.

since been modi fied by the addition of a transi tional zone between the As ian and Australianlones, but in general the differences betweenthe two natural real ms are still significant.Cultural DiversityMany Indonesians would agree that Indonesia'secological divers ity is re sponsible for the cultural di ve rsity of its population. However, it isdifficult to formulate universal ru les relating forms ofcu lture to forms of natural habitat. Hi storically theseas surrounding the various islands often were themeans of communication between ethnic groups ,but these same seas sometimes were avoided byothe rs, such as the Balinese. Groups with very different forms of social and technological organisa tionmay exist in close proximity; in Bali th e people ofTrun yan living w ithin the volcanic crater of MountBatur persist in maintaining a lifes tyle which wasreplaced in most of Bali many centuries ago . TheTengger and Badui peoples of highland Java areother groups who have chosen to retain pa tterns oflife which the vast ma jority of the surrounding populations modified long ago. Although such groupstend t9 be found in isolated mountain areas, theircultural conserva tism is due at least as much toconscious decisions as to environmental factors.Different soils, ava ilability of natu ral materials, andcommunicati on routes ha ve obviously been responsible for other patterns of diversity. Thus in alluvialplains agricultural settlements developed in earlytimes, whereas in less heavily populated areaslifestyles based on hunt ing and gathering wildresources have lingered until the present.Uni ty in Diversi tyIt was only through the experienceof Dutch colonialism that the Indonesians gradually became conscious of the basic s imilari ti es thatunited them, this awareness culminating in the 1945-50 revolutionand th e creation of the Repub lic ofIndonesia with its national motto,Bhinneka Tunggal Ika. This isusually translated as 'Unity inDiversity' . Indonesia's multi-layeredcu ltur I configuration is not entirelya re sult of the impersonaloperation of history and environmental determ ini sm. Ra therIndonesia's complex culturalmake-up can be said to be dueboth to natural conditions an d toconscious hu man dec isions.

Am ls/w/{/ers /JIITy Of!1111 flll tielit tmrlition ofcollertillg prodlll"eforilltemationalmarket.>.

High and l.ow Places.(Jlle basic elf/fllmtfoulld it! the .1J'lIIbo/icsystem.> lif /IIostfl/ dollesian groups/If/S bem the ideaof cOlllplf'llIenta )'oppusition beta!:rellmOIJ/ltairls and seas .(Top) Transportingramblltall bY'\l'arepresents theimpurtallce oj the seasi!l/"dollesiall life, andthe sea as a unify illgfactor. Vulca1I0e.\', ,' /Ie/!as Ria/alli ill Lombok(belm"'), f i r !' associatedwitlt feltilit), andsIJpernatllralPO 'l;!!o:

15


11/18

Periods of IndonesianPrehistoryH

istorians are not merely interested in recording the past. A simple listof dates, names, and events would hold no interest and would be of no

functional value. The main goal of scholars who study the past is to search forpattems of behaviour and to draw conclusions regarding the cause and effectrelationships which recur at different times and in different places.

Poi17ri11gfro minterior ofslob gm t'C,Sumatro. The bUliols

of members ofthe elilefrom Ihe lale

prehistoric periodindicale 011 increasillgdevelopmenl of sratusdiffereuces among

Indonesian socielies.

))))Bolokpall/!,/tluba/aog sla/ul'

from Sumalra (left)and Toraja lOll-Iou

from Sula'll!:t'si. These

The Periodization ProblemOne of the goals of those who study the past is toidentify time periods marked by a few strong culturaltraits. In Europe the Da rk Ages, the MediaevalPeriod, the Renaissance, and the Enlightenment,have been identified as historic periods . Theprehistoric period is divided in to ages named aftertypes of technology: Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age),Mesolithic (Middle) , Ne olithic (New Stone Age).

- Bronze Age and Iron Age.In Indonesia there are

traditional genres of writ ingwhich deal wi th the past.These include categoriessuch as hikayat, babad, andtambo, all of whichconstitute treasuries oftraditional perceptions ofthe past held by differentgroups in thearchipelago. Thesegenres do not divide thepast into time periods;instead they stress

continuity and the cyclicalnature of historical events.

During the 19th century,Western researchers began to investigate Indonesia'shistory using approaches based on the assumptionthat the different stages characteristic of theEuropean sequence of development could beuniversally applied. They began co llecting historica lsources spared by the Indonesian climate. Initially the

ALOR MOKO

Bronze lRoko drulR from Alodngilft. ilia lIB Alorstyle moko (left) that may have been made . . a copy inJava. Such drum. can be traced directly to thIO bronzework oflat" prehiwtoric Bali. 2.000 years ago. TheywIOre in UNe in eastern Indonesia until Dutch colonialofficers confiscated moot of them in order toimp lement policies of cultural change.

Heekeren , for example, used the periodization ofPalaeo lithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, and IronAges (sometimes combining bronze and iron into oneearly Metal Age).

In Indonesia a special phase was introduced,termed Megalithic. In Europe, such remains werealso present, but no separate period was defined onthei r basis . This was partly due to the fact that theywere not as widely distributed in Europe as inIndonesia. Th e distribu tion of megalithic remains inIndone sia signifies a speCia l cultura l pa ttern, whichwas at first thought to have constituted a un iquechronological phase of development.

To clarify many issues in Indonesian prehistory, itwas necessary to wait unt il after World War II , whenprogress was made in several areas, including boththeory and also techniques such as radiocarbon andother forms of absolute dating. The status of the'Megalithic' phase has been re-eva luated. It is nowrecognised that a 'living' megalithic trad ition stillexists in many parts of Indonesia as a legacy of theprehistoric era. Thi s raises the question of whether adivision based solely on technology can properlyrepresent the dynamiCS ofstatues are so similar

10 tht' sculpture of tilePacific islallds Ihat

they are usually lermed'PoIY1lf:sirl/l- sfyle'. Thepraclill' ofplacillg sudl

Slalues, madl: of 1 { J o d or Slone , uea,- villagesfor proter:lioll was still

found it! olmosl al lparts of IlIdollesia ill

the 19th cellfury. Theyare all (')ample of

(o lllinllil), of style fl1ldfurtctloll lJ!Jhich makes

periodizfltirJ1l ofIudonesia spas!

difficull.16

sources exploited were literary and epigraphic. Onlylater was th is followed by archaeo logical re searchon the many candi. Prehistoric research on ly beganin the 1920s.Developing a ChronologyPeriodization of Indonesian prehistory wouldenable us to observe and understand historicaldevelopmen ts as processes rather than randomcollections of dated events . Researchers initiallycopied the system employed in Europe, basedon technology. Cu ltura l change was assumedto be due to migration. In the ea rly 1920s thefi rst prehistoric research in Indonesia waslimited by lack of qualified personnel.Pioneers in this field , PV van Stein Callenfels,A.N.J. Th . a Th . van der Hoop , and H.R. van

cultural evolution. Many


12/18

within each period.Th is model was based on traditional models,

and needs further tes ting In the fie ld. It isnecessary to obtain comparisons withoth er models , and more absolutedates . Th e goal of this model is toplace grea ter stress on the often

Metal-Using Pe riod. Research shows thatsociety had become complexlyorganised by this time, wi th aninstitut ionalised stratification andleadership system. The leaders andthei r assistants were responsible forsociety's preservation and welfare. Inthis system leadership was based ontrust rather than inherrted author ity Thosewho demonstrated the ir abilty to leadreceived respect. and honou rs afterdeath , as shown by burial offeringsfound in the Agricu ltura l Periodand in the Craftsmanship P riod .Ritual sites with groups ofmegaliths, and slab graves withpainted walls indicate more thanpr imi tive efforts to disp lay thisrespec t. During th is timesoc ia l units were fo nm ingwhich developed in to thekingdoms of the Archaic age.

fish, shellfish, and aquatic birds an dmammals become more important in the

diet . Some groups became semisedentary. Bone tools were al soused.Agrieultural Stagc:

Thi s period saw the development ofa Neolithic tradition. People started living inpe rm anent villages with populations of 300 to400 people. Some section s of the populationwerc still inhabiting caves. Technologywas changing and stone tools wcrebeing produced usi ng new techniquessuch as grinding and polishing. Themain kinds of artefacts included axes,ad zes and ground bracelets, and alsoblades. Pottery storage vessels were

made to sto re food an d seeds forreplanting. Beads were also crea ted

decoration . People probably practisedcults of the ances tors and na IUral fo rces,

and learned how to domes ticate cropsan d animals. Some groups appointedI aders , the beginning of a politica lsystem .

~ r a f t s l 1 1 a n s h i p Stage .Meralworking began . Iron and bronze may have

been introduced almosr simnltaneously. Thesenew materials eventually became sym bo ls ofSf.lt us, as social hi erarchies beca mc d iffe rent ia te d .Long distance trade in me tal including both ore

an d fini shed products developed . old wasIlscd for jewellery an d burial fferings .

Sacred monuments usi n T large stonesse t 011 terraces began ro be

constructed .(After SoeJono)

17

made by drilling andpolisltillg.

POllny ve.\SeIfrom Me/olo,east Sumba.Neolithi( or

fixe from Roti (left),and go ld earomameflts from Java(below ).

disco'leries are known of 'Neolithic elementswhich pe rsisted into the period of metal-usingsociety. It IS also suspected that Mesolithicstyle artef cts persisted and continued to formparts of assemb lages wh ich would be termedNeol ithic on st yl istic g roun ds.

It is clear that t he older periodlza tion ofIndonesia's prehisto ry is not acceptable.The European periods were defined on theoas is of links between the material used fortoo ls arl other cultural subsystems: politicaland eco nomic structures, for example.Archaeo log ists have now discovered that th ecorrelation between technology and wider spheres ofculture in Eu ro pean prehistory does not appear to beaccurate for Indonesia.The I ndonesi an ModelA new sys tem of periodiza tion for Indonesianprehistory had to be created. R.P. Soejono,Indonesia 's most famous prehistorian, has sugges teda three-stage periodization to take account of thesepossibilities: a Hunting- Gathering period ,succeeded by an Agricultura l Period , and finally developed more varied tool kits

to fit particular activities. A widea Craftsmanship Period. This system can be variety of plants and aquatic food s such asfurther deve loped by identifying sub- divisions

complex re lationship between theenv ironment, humans, and culture rather th an oneva riab le, technology. However this model is st ill closeto the old one, and more time is needed before itsuse fu lness can be discerned.

Pre historic Indones ian societies during thetransit ion to th e historic period were in theAg ricultural Period or the following Ag riculture and

INDONESIAN PREHISTORICPERIODIZATION

Hunting-Gathering Stage.The societies that developed at

this stage inhabited lowlandareas. Their principalartefact forms werechoppi ng tools, flakes, andbone tools. People lived in

small bands of four to five families(consisting of about 20- 30 people) . They

migrated seasonally from on e re source zone toanother. At a certain time ofyear theypo ss ibly me t other bands fo r ceremonialactivities. Tools were few and simple,enabling people to move frequently.Epi-Palaeolithican d Hunting period. Duringthis period groups mainlyinhabited caves. They producedblades an d stone tools. Som egroups became more specialised in

hunting certain prey, and gradually

LAND . PEOP LE AND HISTORY

Blades (left) made byslrilzing {/ flake from apre- shaped stone core ,and stone dlOpping

tool (right).

Fille polisl/edadzes made ofdw/cedony.

ChalcedollY brace/ets


13/18

Techniquesrchaeological techniques range from the very simple to the newestand most expensive, which can be performed in only a fewlaboratories around the world. In order to evaluate the state of ourknowledge of ancient Indonesia, the reliability and comprehensiveness of

our inferences must be judged in the light of the techniques of recoveryand analysis employed.

Ethno-archaeolo,!JI .Stlldies ofmodem

crafts made ii!'l'thtradil/ollaJ tedilliquesare valuableguzdes to

behaviourofpeop lesof the past. This

!v1inangkabau potterfrom Galogalldang,

l!!est Sumatra, is usingthe paddle and at/vii

lechi7ique by whichmuch prehistoric

Indonesian potterywas also made.

Ethno-archaeologyhas shown that llIostallcient pollrl'S 'W'tfl'

probably women.

From the So ilArchaeology's oldest and m ost read ilyunderstandable research principle is fo unded on theconcept of stratigraphy. Soi l forms In layers whichcan be distinguished from one another by simplevisual means, for example colour, texture, andmaterial. These layers, or strata, if undisturbed willform a sequence which correspon ds to the passageof time . Deeper layers are older. Human ac tiv itytends to upset this neat pattern, People have dugholes for burial and for building foundations, andtilled the soil for ag riculture for Ihousands of years.These disturbances make th e interpretation of thestratigraphic sequence more difficult. Some sites are,of course, more disturbed than others, anddifferences can also occur even between differentparts of the same site. The drawing of a stratigraphicprofile is one of the most important tasks of thearchaeologist. Once a site has been excavated, thiseliminates the possibility that another archaeologistcan ever study it except through the records madeby the original excavators. Although artefacts andsoil samples ma y be restudied, the soil profile canonly be recorded by the first observer. Carefulobservers will note both strata and features , whichare usually small , localised pockets of soil containing

POLLEN SPECTRUM, PEA SIM - SIM SWAMP, NORTH SUMATRA AFTER MALONEY, 1990

EMsl!! > '" CD. z::.~ C D i . t E .,c::::a.~ . ? ! : C D - ' E ~ :6; l!aRlca.- ca:"a III C CD eno5,000. 1 130 2

34

12 ,500. 5140 678

17,880. 9 _200 i

w::i5... .. z .....c = .c. :e... .. fti= i:2w= CI c:J

i

- . ::.::.

- . . fTTT1 T ! T l

Pollen spectrum depicting the changing environment of Sumatra . At four to sixmetres depth, Cyathea pollen typical of the Ice Age suddenly decreases, indicatinghigher temperature, At une metre depth, the increase in grass pollen s u g g e s t ~ thathumans were clearing large areas of forest for ag riculture about 5,000 years ago.

18

CERAM ICSEa rt henware shads

rrom Kot a C inn, northSu mat l'll , J I th century,

made by pndd ic nnd anv il, and (below)I n\'a tlc sc bu rni she d re d wa re, 14thCenI Uf)'. Po lt er)' il' fine o f theT ' ~ filVo uri te Krtefact". 1t is sensitive

to changi ng ti l11" an d pb cc . I n,,an csc and M alayfT lloit io na l pOll er)' for l l I p 'II'C q uite disti nct.I t is a\ ,o al l110ST Im pervious to decay.

a reco rd of some speC ial activi ty such as a heart h, orpost moulds, for example

Soil itself is an important source of information forthe archaeologiSt. It contains ecofacts, a term coinedto correspond to the more common artefacts. Anecofact is any object or feature consisting of naturalmaterial which preserves the record of Interactionbetween humans and their environment. The mostcommon ecofacts are plant remains. Pollen grainscan be preserved under certain cond itions forthousands of years, and allow us to reconstructancient enVIronments, and the beginning of humaninterference with the natural wor ld by forest clearingand introduction of ne w species. Pollen research, orpalynology, has also been applied to historic sitessuch as Borobuduf to try to determine the conditionswhich existed around the monument. Soil can alsoprovide valuable clues to the effects of humanactivity. Patterns of erosion and deposit ion can tell usmuch about past land use in an area. An alysis of soilphosphate can Indicate the presence of pa stpopulations even in the absence of artefactsI n the LaboratoryThe first concern of an archaeologist is toJJe able tolocate artefacts In space. The second is to locatethem in time. There are two kinds of time inarchaeology: re lative and absolute. Relative datingsimply means that one object is older lhan another.Stratigraphy is one means whereby objects can berelatively dated , but this normal ly only works forobjects from the same site. Another standard methodis called seriation, in which artefacts are arranged insequence according to stylistiC differences. Thisapproach is particularly useful fo r dating complexworks of art such as statu es or temples. It is difficultto date many of the te mples of central Java withprecision. The seriation me thod, however, can atleast give a re lative chronological sequence for thetemples according to the development of theirmouldings an d fin ials.


14/18

----- -,Absolute dat ing ca n give the approximate

age of an object in years The first suchtechnique to be invented was radioca rbonanalysis, which was developed in the late1940s. Because of th e variablenatu e of rad ioactivity of ca rbonisotopes, on which this methoddepends, there is always amargin fo r erro r. Rad iocarbon(carbon 14 or C14) datesare usua lly written wi th api s or minus figure, forexample 5000 +/- 75. Th isindicates that the true datehas a 67 pe r cent chance of beirrgbetween 4,92 5 and 5,075 yea rs ago, or a 90 pe rcent chance of falling within th e range of 4,850 to5,150 years. Th ese are broad margins, but forpreh istoric sites they are not ve ry significan t. Wheremore recent sites are concerned, especia lly those ofthe last 1,000 years, absolute dating is not veryuselul because of th is imprecision . Radiocarbondating can only be applied to material such as woodor bone wh ich was once alive. It cannot be used ford rect dating of inorganic ob jects such as potteryand me talwork . A techn ique ca lledthermoluminescence has been tes ted to dateeart henwa re pottery, but this is also imprecise, and itcannot be used for porcelain . The carbon 14 methodcan only be used for sites up to about 50,000 yearsold. Archaeologists wo rking on older sites can makeuse of othe r techniques using the radioac tive decayof other elements su ch a potassium- argon.Finding SitesArchaeological reconnaissance or exploration ofsites, as opposed to excavation, is becomingincreas ingly important. Remote sensing enablesarchaeo logists to study larg e areas ve ry efficiently.Many archaeological problems can only be solvedwi th a knowledge of the distribution of sites. Anotherprac tical consideration which has led to an inc reasedemphas is on remote sensing is the fact thatexcavat ion is becoming increas ingly expensive. Thelarges t city of ancien t Indonesia, which is now

.

85 em

known as thesite of Trowulan, in eas t Java, covers an areaestimated at between 50 and 100 square kilometres.Survey of this huge area is yielding informati on aboutthe density of population and range of occupationsprac tised in th is important site. Excavation of such ahuge area would be impractica l.Studying ObjectsIn some cases it is possible to answer questions ofo rigin, technology, an d function , just by look ing atartefacts. For most of the o bjects left behind by pas tgenerations , however, we have no In formation withwhich to answer these questions. Chemical analysishas long been prac tised in an attempt to traceartefacts to their sources. Such app roaches are now.be ing app lied t o such materials as metal , potteryand glass. Petrography, neutron ac ti va tion, flamespectroscopy, and X- ray diffraction are only a few ofthe techniques used to an alyse materials. Anc ientpat terns of trade and com munication are nowbecoming known as such analyses are pe rformed. Itis diff icult to determine where metal objects camefrom; in many cases the metal used came from moreth an one origin an d may have been recyc led locally.We can, however, study the techniques used to w orkmetal. Electron microscopy has been pa rticularlyuseful in detecting miniscule marks which enable usto trace the stages of p roduction of metal artefacts.

LAN D, PEOPLE AND HISTORY

Seriation -Architedural FinialsThese decorations fromclassica l Javallesetemples displa ., slightvariations which enablearchaeologists t17 workout a seqlleltce ofdevl'/opm eTIt for ancient]e'"Jcwese anhitf'f lltre.o f1rjuna , Dieng - ca.70r)o NgaweTl [[ - gate,ca. 770e Borobudur - ca. 800

StratigraphicDiagram, DiengPlateauo Candi PU17tadewao While gra'vcl bel/eMit Pf/ I/tadewa o Soilfill of thefoo/ of PU1ltadtrcf!Ja o Ullexmv ated areao Disturbed soil around tile f oot of Puntadewa o Disturbed soil wherecm all cie111 7!!a!! mayhave stood.o Modem draino Soil fill oj a 'i!!Ctll buill around 8S0ADo Wh itegravel CI!> BrImm sot! that atCi/mu lated in the lemple courtYOld oj

ECOFACTS(L eft ) Con st r uctio n lev el of P unt adewa showi ng round marks of a nci ent sca ffolding e(Ce n t re) Excava ti on it e be twee n Se mbadra an d Pun tad ewa, D icng.(Righ t) Soi l pr file s howing where an an cient wall may have st ood (a reas 8 0 4J!) ).

o

Caridi Sembadra.Soil occupying

theplace of the 1I0Wvanished foot ofSembadra.mBrowlI soil 071'iiI'hid the Joot othe templp '{J!. fI.\ buil tCD Candi Sembadra


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f Indonesian Scriptspart from the use of Arabic script for religious texts after the 11 thcentury and of Latin script In more recent times, all Indonesian scripts

o Indian prototypes. The prototype of nearly allscripts was the script used especially by the Pa//ava kings ofIndia from the 4th to the 9th century AD. Our knowledge of earlier

is based on inscriptions in stone or metal from westernand Malaysia.

Pal/ova scriplinscription, easl

maman. The oldeslrloel/lIImlS

from hldollesia,il1 abrJUt 400

D, make /tse of 17isof scrip I desigllfdcially for m rv 71g

011 stone. Probablvkillds of scripl

used ill everydayW17!171g.

AIuslim tombstolleil1 !lcel7 provirlce

but importedfrom17orthwesI 111dia.

The EvidenceThere are some 3,000 inscript ions known fro mancient Indon esia. They are written in variouslanguages: Sanskrit, Old Malay, Old Java nese, OldBalinese , Ar ab ic, and Tamil. Many are bad y worn. Itis somewhal easier to decipher Sanskrit inscriptionsbecause th ey are wri tten in poe tic form according toIndian rules, helping us to guess what is missing ordebatable The most numerous type in Java dealswith the foundlllg of sima, areas where the ru lertransferred some tax-col lecting rigil ts to re li giousinstitu tions. Some inscnpt ions exist on ly in the formof copies, written several centuries later than theoriginals. The contents of the later versionssometimes suggest that the documents were notsimply copied , bu t were also changed. Th einscriptions follow a more or less standard format :complex date, name of officials involved, us ually, butnot always, starting with the k ing; then the locationof, and reasons for setting up the sima.Earliest ScriptsBetween the 41h and 8th centuries AD severalSanskrit ins criptions were written in 'Pallava scriptsimilar to that used in South India, Sri Lanka andmainland Southea st Asia. This script is inte rm ediatebetween a syllabic and an alphabetic script. Thereare no dated inscriptions before the end of the 7thcentury and earlier inscrip tions can only beapproximately dated by compa rison with datedinscripti ons elsewhere in southern Asia .

20

Thi s script was

deSigned to be carved on slone. The oldest script is th aI used in seven inscriptions found In eas t Kaliman tan at Kut8J , It is found on monuments and resembles that used in Andhra Pradesh at the end of the 4th century. Certain features of the Kutai script are clearly archaic and suggest a date not later th an th e be ginning of the 5th century, Th e script of King Purnav arm an of w est Java , which is similar but lacks most of the typ ical archaic features of th e Kutai inscriptions, may be dated at least half a century la ter to the latter ha lf of the 5th century. One of these inscr ip tions which originated from the ki ngdom of Tar um a has an ad di tional Inscription in so- called

, shell-script which some sch olars hav e interpreted asthe king s personal Signature.A la te r stage of 'Pallava' script is used in earlyOld Malay inscr ip tions in South Sumatra and on th eisland of Bangka, da ting to the end of th e 7thcentury. The script is less ornamental and morereg ularised in that all letters are of equal height. Thescript of the Sanskrit inscription of Canggal in centralJava, dated 732 AD , is more ornamental than theSriwijaya inscriptions, but essentially similar. By th isstage the development of scnpts in Indonesia hadalready dive rged from the evolution of Ind ian scrip ts.Early Kawi ScriptThe Din oyo inscription from east Java, dated 760 AD,is the oldest exa mple of Ka wi , or Old Javanesescript. Although related to later 'Pallava' it hasseveral unique features . It is slightly cursive and haslost its monumental character, and gives theimpression of be ing based on a writ ing systemdesigned for palm leaves using a stylus, as inma nuscripts , It is a clear and functional script. Itremained in vogue with on ly minor, mainly stylislic ,changes ti ll the end of the 15th century. Un like thePallava script, whi ch is found allover So uth andSouth east Asia in almost the same form, early KawiOLD JAVANESE SCRIPT (KAWI)This palm leaf manuscript from th c bonierbetwecn ccntral a nd wes t .l av a w as presented toth e Bodleian L i h m r ~ in En/!lund in 162 i . Atthll t timc it w us already de scrihed 11" he ingIIntique. The quadnlt ic i p t , a distincti\'t,variant of Old .Iavanesl, or Kawi, rna\' dutefrom th e 14th ce nt uq . The spelling sl;g/!ests thutit miltht have been written in west .lava.The text consists of what is called II t u t l l l ~ a prose discoursc Oil Hi ndu-Buddhist teachings.I n this cxample it is presented in the form of alesson by a tCllchcr, or 1t11l' II, to his pupils. Partof this text consists of lin cxplanntion ofSanskrit terms an d verses. Several suchreli,l(ious treatises were kept us heirlooms in.lava up until the 19 th century.


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KADIRI SCRIPTUrrllUllcnw "'lidiri l.1 uud l"nle .cript of the121h century on hro n",e mirror h a ndlles. Onthe cuned [hllt of th e h a ndk ( ri !(ht ) . a mirro r' \lIS once at t acl,.,d. hu t it is no w lost . It isuecorated with squ a rish an d sw o llen Kad il'i,c ri[lt , nam ed aftcr .11. E a st J a va ne se ki n gdo m

of th e 111h a nd 12th ce nturies . which isquite difficult 10 deciphe r. Man ymirro rs h a"e be e n fo und w ilh Kadi.iinscriptions. Thes.e in scription s

norm a ll y consi s t of a si n/i le wordwhich c\'ok.es th e he au ty of H woman

or a n e ,"pre ss io n o f lo"c.is typically Javanese and shows

me beginning of proto-regional form s.Although early Kawi IS well adapted to expressingIndonesian languages, the origin of the symbols usedin 010 Javanese is unknown, being different from thatuse in India or ma inland South-east As ia. There area consid erable number of examples of 'Archa icphase Kawi ', dating from 750-850 AD. This wasfollowed by a 'Standard' phase, approximately from850-925 AD . These were mostly written during thereigns of two kings: Kayuwangi, 856- 882 AD , andBalitung, 899- 910 AD. Over one third of allinscriptions from Java are in this scr ipt.Early NagariWith few exceptions this script was used for wri tingSanskrit. There are Ive examples, all but one fromsouth cent ral Java, dating from the late 8th to early9th centuries. This script may have had a northIndian ong ln, perhaps associated with the Buddhistmonas tery at alanda. It is sometimes called PreNagar! because the oldest known examples in Indiaonly date from the 11 th and 12th centuries . It is alsopossible that the scnpt evolved in Indonesian Buddhist monasteries before being used in inscliptions.A complicated Ins cription from Sanur, Bali consists oftnlee parts: one in early Nagar! script and Sanskritlangu age; another in Nagari script , Old Balineselanguag e; and the th ird in Early Kawl script, and OldBalinese language. Its probable date is 914 AD.Later Kawi Scr iptTh is form of Writ ing can be roughly dated to 9251250 , but the beginning and end of the period areno t clearly marked. In the East Javanese andBalinese inscriptions from the 10th to the 15thcenturies there was an increasing tendency to add

PHASESOF INDONESIAN SCRIPTSPallava EK SK lK I lK II KAOIRI

decorative elements to the basic lette( forms. Thusinitial vert icals were written with an elegant doublebend and lend a slender appearance to the letters.In the 12th century (Kadiri period), letters weresometimes shaped in to complicated patterns.

In the Majapahit period (14th and 15th centuries),several diffe rent styles of 'N ri ting emerged. In add ition

.to scr ipts with numerous flourishes there was alsoa tendency to revert to a Simpler monumental style.The oldest extant palm leaf manuscripts also dateback to thi s period. They represent a different styleadapted to w ri ting on palm leaves with a stylus.Fourteenth century inscriptions from west Su matraassociated with King Adityavarman, however, presentquite a different style, probably due to the region 'sindependent development over sev ral centuries.Arabi c ScriptArabic-Persian scr ipt was mainly used fo r religioustexts an d inscriptions on tombstones . The earliestexample is an 11 th centu ry inscription at Leran, eastJava, written in 'Kulic' script. The tombstone 01KingMaliku- 's- Saleh in north Sumatr (1297) is written inordinary Arabic script . as is that of Malik Ibrahim,

east Java. dated 1429. 011/' of tllejlrst Islamic.kingdomsestablished illJava, i1l tile

7I/id- J5th

LAN D. PEOP LE AND HISTORY

Copper-plateil/scriptiOllof Krtflfli'iiaya dated1369 Sa/.-a (1447AD)from Warillgilt Pitll.Tlte calligraphy of this('.Wlmp//, is typical ofthat Itsed i1/ the,lJajopahit era . Thisstyle of writing isdoser to the scriptwhid, was I1sed 1II0refrequel/tly for writingOil palm leaves than theoma1lJe1Jta/ script I1sed1)11 stotle. Itldo//f'.\irlJ/ scriptsshow considerablestylistic chtlllgf' durillgtheir 1,000 year

Sri MOllggola simastOlll'. (rectcel ill 874AD, 'IJl'rittell il l Kawiscript. Th e stolle WflSfOI1 lid lIe{(rPramballall.

iI1acali A/ i (Ali's / ) : all (.w/mple ofJaVOrlese lise of ArabicIetfel'S to form a des igll.This 1/Io/'ifwas used asthf emblem of Circbol/.


17/18

Short CyclesAp art from th ese cosmic cycles, Indonesians we realso acquainted with yearly and monthly cyc les .Shorter cycles of five days or even fewer have longSystems been used In Java, Ball, Sumatra, and elsewhere.

he first calendrical system in Indonesia is attested in the 5th centuryI AD inscription of King Purnavarman, west Java, which gives a dateof the regnal year and Indian months. However, since the firstear of the king's re ign is unknown, we cannot 'translate' this date into an

in a known era are first attested to the 7thIn many Indonesian inscriptions, numerical signs are replaced bya particular number (thus 'sage' equals seven because

were traditionally seven sages),

Candrasellgkala,Kasepuhan Palace,

Cirebo n, The symbol,"the bull 011 /he reri

gate", indicates theSaka year 7367,

01'1445 AD.

Tr


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BATAKDIVINATORV CALENDAR\I,cJ k divinalor} calendar , or farha/ua". Th e chanof I.lline. and 30 square. mark anspicious orinanspicious days.)III XI X IX VIII VII VT V IV III II

23

5

7

IIIII12J3I .J151617181920212223

2f>2728

determine a date, but by the 10lh century inscriptionsadd further details such as the name of theconstellation within which the moon appears (one of27 naksatras . 'moon-houses ), and a graduallyincreas ing quantit of other astronomical data, meantto show tha t the document was dated at anauspicious moment.The Muslim EraBefore 1500 the Mu slim era was only occasionallyused, on lOOlbstones. As the Muslim year is nearly 11da s shorter than the solar year, the differencebetween Mus lim and Christ ian years Is graduallydecreas ing, now totalling 571 years . Almost all of theMuslim tombstone s at Tralaya in the great Javanesecapital at Majapahit, though inscribe in Arabic, aredated in the Saka era with Old Javanese numerals.

five, and seven-day week (in lhat order).These details are more than sufficien t to

An interesting variant of the Musl imera is used in Java. In Saka 1555 (1633AD) Su ltan Agung of Mataram decidedthat the length of the year should 'beharmonized wi th the Muslim year, but the

Bamboo parhalaanlised by Ihe Balak,SIImalra. It isinscribed witha divinatorytalei/daT:numbering of years should continue as

before. Thus the difference between theJavanese and Christian year is reduced byabout three years each century and ha s nowbecome 68.

Indonesians ha ve always been time-conscious:all documents were securely dated. Historica l textsrarely om it dates for important events. Many temples,mosques, even statues bear dates. So do thechronicles of Java, Sulawesi, Sumatra, and Malaysia.The concept of time plays an important part inIndonesian culture, reflected in the use of severaltables for calculating the correct date for importantdecisions such as marriage and trave l.Zod iac SystemsThe Indonesians also had a concept analogous tothat of the Western zod iac This se t of 12 symbolswas sometimes used to decorate bronze vessels forcontaining holy water in east Java; simi lar vessels arestill used by Balinese priests. In a typical example.the designs are diVid ed into two registers, an upperand a lower, horizontally en circling the body o f thevesse l. The upper reg ister usually depicts deities inthe wayang style; the lower row depicts signs ofconstellat ions, many of which are similar to westernsymbols . They include the crab (Cancer), waterves se l (Aquarius), fish (P isces), ram (A ries), bull(Taurus ), scales (Libra), scorpion (ScorpiO), goat(Capricorn) , archer (Sag ittarius), lion (Leo), andhuman twins (Gemini).Evidence From Inscri ptions

the month of Asuji, the 15th day of the brighthalf of the month, haryang (a day inthe Javanese six day week),umanis (a day in the Javafive day week). Wednesday,wh ile the lunar mansionUltarabhadrapad a stood un derthe deily Ahirabudhna duringthe conjunction of Dil ruva'. Th edate is thus stated in veryprecise terms.

Inscriptions from Javacontain the names ofat least 40 stars. ThisIndicates that thencient Javanese

probably had a verygood knowledge ofastronomy which theyundoubtedly used fornavigational purposesas well as timekeeping and divination,

The following is an example of a typica l date foundon a Javanese inscription: 'The Saka year of 843,

ese

the lower band S/IOW)S

B1'Ollz.(' w diac bfOker(Nalional Mu seum.Jak01ta) 1I.fl 'ti forstoring holy watel;Il1ajopahil kingdom,Java (141h centlllY).TIle upjJer baT!d depi.ctsfi.gureI rendered in the

1J!)ayang style, while

Documents

Indonesian Heritage Vol 1-6-23