MBRAS Visit to Sg Batu Archaeological Site, Kuala Muda, Kedah1

Interest in the Bujang Valley 'settlements' can be traced back to the 1840s. James Low, a colonial officer of the Prince of Wales Island government, conducted field research—albeit in amateur fashion—in Kuala Muda. What was particularly interesting was the discovery of shell middens and human remains dating back 10,000 years. Low also discovered the remnants of Hindu-Buddhist structures and other evidence of a trading settlement. Whilst visits by colonial administrator-scholars continued in the 1870s, it was not until the 1920s that scholarly interest became more focused. Two names were most prominent in the inter-war years: I. H. N. Evans in the 1920s and the Wales (Quaritch & Dorothy) in the late 1930s. By this time it was evident that the Bujang Valley was the site of an ancient Indic settlement dating back to at least the fourteenth century CE and perhaps, as the evidence has since revealed, even earlier.

University of Malaya academics took up the work after World War II when field trips were conducted by K. G. Tregonning, M. Sullivan, Alastair Lamb and Muzium Negara's J. Peacock. It was only in the 1970s that locals got to lead expeditions and research, starting with Al-Rashid (Muzium Negara), Leong Sau Heng (UM), Adi Taha (Muzium Negara), Nik Hassan Suhaimi (UKM), Kamaruddin Zakaria (UM) and Supian Sabtu (UM). With each field expedition the net was cast wider, revealing more details about the various settlements in the Bujang Valley.

During this time the Society has consistently published articles regarding significant discoveries in the Bujang Valley. A search on our digital archives uncovers nine articles going back to 1940. In that year, JMBRAS published an article by H. G. Quaritch Wales entitled 'Archaeological Researches in Ancient Indian Colonization in Malaya'.

This was followed up in 1959 when the Society published an article submitted by Dr Alastair Lamb, who was then head of the University of Malaya's Archaeological Society. A series of annual field work visits were conducted by the latter in 1956-8. Its key findings were published in JMBRAS in 1959 as 'Recent Archaeological Work in Kedah'. One further connection between the Society and UM's 1950s field studies is Professor Wang Gungwu, JMBRAS International Advisory Board member, who was a member of the expeditions.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, contributions to JMBRAS regarding the Bujang Valley took the formof vignettes. Submitted by former Director-General of Muzium Negara, Dr Adi Taha, the journal kept up with archaeological research in Malaysia by a new generation of post-colonial researchers. These were published in 1987 as 'Recent Archaeological Discoveries in Peninsular Malaysia (1983-1987)' and in 1990 as 'Archaeological Discoveries in Peninsular Malaysia (1987-1990)'.

In the 1990 JMBRAS issue, for example, Dr Adi Taha informs the reader that: 'Site No. 50 is a new site which was not discovered by Quaritch Wales during his research in the Bujang Valley.' Although initial research was conducted in 1974 by Mr Rashid of Muzium Negara, work on the site was abandoned and resumed by a joint Muzium Negara-Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) team. The latter was led by Professor Nik Hassan Suhaimi. In 1993, the full scale of the UKM research project was given an airing in JMBRAS by Nik Hassan Suhaimi and Kamaruddin Zakaria as 'Recent Archaeological Discoveries in Sg Mas, Kuala Muda, Kedah'.

By the 1990s archaeological evidence firmly established the Bujang Valley as an important national heritage site. The Bujang Valley's significance has developed beyond being an important site of an 'ancient Indian Colonization' as described by Quaritch Wales. The UKM research led by Nik Hassan Suhaimi, for example, revealed more evidence of the site's trading activities with pottery and ceramic wares dating back to the Tang and Sung dynasties. The site was strongly Hindu-Buddhist in orientation, which influenced architecture and, presumably, the social organization of the settlement. More importantly, the accidental discovery at Sg Mas (the ceramic shards were discovered when an irrigation canal was dug in Kg Sungai Mas in 1980), the site obviously came into prominence in the sixth century CE...