Ancient ruins discovered

A 1,900-year-old monument has been discovered in an oil palm plantation near the Sungai Batu historical complex in Bujang Valley.

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Assoc Prof Dr Mokhtar Saidin, who led a team of researchers to conduct excavations at Bujang Valley from February 2009 to May this year, said based on dating results, the age of the monument dated back around 110 AD.

“This is something new as previous archaeological works on unearthed temple ruins and artefacts are recorded to be 1,500 years ago.

“This makes the Sungai Batu monument the oldest in comparison with other sites in Southeast Asia such as Borobodur in Central Java (8th century AD) and Siva-Bhadresvara Temple in Vietnam (4th century AD),” he said.

Dr Mokhtar said the dating results were obtained using the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon and Thermoluminesence (TL) and Optically Stimulated Luminesence (OSL) techniques.

He revealed this at the Think City Sdn Bhd’s (Think City) ‘Penang Story Lectures’ at Wawasan Open University recently.

His team also discovered iron-smelting sites which are believed to have existed since 60 AD.

Dr Mokhtar said the team hoped to secure enough funding to enable more excavation works to be done in Bujang Valley.

“A total of 81 sites have been identified for excavations.

“Further discoveries will help us to find out what kind of kingdom existed in the early civilisation at Bujang Valley,” he said.

Last year, USM’s Centre for Global Archaeological Research, of which Dr Mokhtar is the director, received RM2.3mil from the National Heritage Department and RM2.5mil from USM.

The ‘Penang Story Lectures’ which is part of the Penang Story Project is in collaboration with the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (MBRAS), USM and Penang Heritage Trust (PHT).