Traces of ancient Sungai Batu flow and trading complex from geophysical surveys and archaeological excavations

Abstract

Excavations in Sungai Batu have revealed numerous archaeological artifacts that link Sungai Batu to a life heavily associated with trading. The discovered artifacts originated back to the 1st century; therefore, was established as one of the oldest known civilization in Southeast Asia. This encouraged researchers to dig deeper on Sungai Batu’s archaeological events; however, many of the studies were relatively superficial and did not portray the dynamics between Sungai Batu trading complex and its ancient river as a whole but explained in localized sections. This paper seeks to provide a conclusion of the past events in the area based on geological, geophysical and geotechnical studies. The discussions include tracing the ancient Sungai Batu flows and the trading complex for better illustration of their associations so that future archaeological endeavors could discover more trade and religious artifacts aside from jetty structural remains, iron smelting sites, potteries and stupa at Sungai Batu.

Keywords

• sungai batu
• ancient river
• trading complex
• entrepot