THE BRONZE·IRON AGE OF INDONESIA VERBANDELINGEN VAN HET KONINKLIJK INSTITUUT VOOR TAAL-, LAND- EN VOLKENKUNDE DEEL XXII THE BRONZE.IRON AGE OF INDONESIA BY H. R. VAN HEEKEREN SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V ISBN 978-94-015-0352-5 ISBN 978-94-015-0909-1 (e8ook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-0909-1 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1958 PREFACE The art of metal casting was imported into Indonesia, but its peoples mastered the secrets of metallurgy, and applied these, in ways often original and unique, to create their own distinctive civilisation of the Bronze-Iron Age. In this handbook, which is a sequal to my The Stone Age of Indo nesia, I have endeavoured to assemble a comprehensive picture of the Indonesian Bronze-Iron Age from the results of excavations, innumerable stray finds in museums, and various studies scattered among numerous scientific journals and periodicals (often difficult to obtain). The resulting picture can, of course, be a tentative one only, valid until many more scientific excavations have taken place. I have added a bibliography, as complete as it was possible to assemble. The completion of this summary of the Prehistory of Indonesia has been assisted by a grant-in-aid from the Wenner Gren Foundation "The Viking Fund", New York. I am grateful to Mr. Basoeki and Mr. Soebokastowo for the drawings of Figures 1, 11, 12, 13, 22 and 16, 23, 24, 25 respectively. Figures 2-10 and 15 were drawn by the well-known artist, the late Mas Pirngadie, and are here published for the first time, with the generous permission of the Board of Directors of the "Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen", Djakarta. I am deeply grateful to my brother-in-law, Mr. J. H. Reiseger of Kempston, Bedfordshire, for so willingly undertaking the translation of the Dutch text into English. I have now left Indonesia for good, and I hope that this handbook and its predecessor will be of help to my successors in carrying on the study of Indonesian prehistory. I wish them all good luck with their enterprise. Heemstede, July, 1957 H. R. VAN HEEKEREN. CONTENTS Preface Introduction 1 I. Stray Finds 8 1. Bronze socketed axes . 8 2. Ceremonial axes . 9 3. Kettle drums . 12 a. Java 18 b. Sumatra 20 c. Bali 21 d. Sumbawa 24 e. Roti 28 f. Luang. 29 g. Leti . 30 h. Kai Islands 31 1. Salajar . 33 4. Bronze vessels 34 a. Sumatra 34 b. Madura 35 5. Plastic art . 36 a. Sumatra 36 b. Java 38 6. The bronzes found at Pradjekan 39 7. Beads 40 8. Other important stray finds . 42 II. Megalithic Cultures. 44 a. Java 46 b. Bali 54 c. Sumbawa 58 d. Celebes 59 e. Borneo . 63 f. Sumatra 63 III. Urn Cemeteries 80 a. Java 80 h. Sumatra 83 c. Celebes . 83 d. Salajar. 85 e. Sumba. 85 IV. The Dongson Culture. 92 1. Dong So'n and the Dongson Culture 92 2. Heine Geldern's thesis on the Pontic migration and the origin of the Dongson Culture . 95 References and Selected Bibliography . . . . . . . . 100 INTRODUCTION In on Indon"ia the Noolithic came to end at daM that we" widely different for various regions of the territory. In the Island of Enggano, for instance, an Early Neolithic Civilisation was still in existence in the 18th century 1; the Neolithic colony of Kalumpang in West Central Celebes has been dated at 1000 A.D. by the author, and it is general knowledge that even today in the interior of New Guinea there are Papuan tribes living in conditions of the Neolithic proper. The period following the Neolithic in Indonesia has been called by me the Bronze-Iron Age. The use of this term requires some explanation. As copper axes have never been found, it may be assumed that there was no Copper Age. Weare not even convinced that there ever was a proper Bronze Age, as there are no primitive bronze axes and flat daggers in the various collections, and there is no knowledge of such finds in excavations. Moreover, no finding-places of bronze objects only are known, but on the contrary, such objects have always been found associated with iron ones. On the other hand, we have repeatedly been confronted with the well-known socketed axes (axes with a socket to take a wooden handle), a type which everywhere else designates the final phase of the Bronze Age or the beginning of the Iron Age. The foregoing arguments cause me to prefer the term Bronze-Iron Age to Bronze Age, which latter term is used by some scholars. R. Heine Gel dem 2 proposed the name Dongson Culture for this period: " ... I proposed to use the term Dongson Culture for the whole Bronze Age of Further India and Indonesia, in the same sense as we speak of a Hallstatt or La Tene Culture, since Dongson was the first site where the respective 1 Heine Geldern, R. 1946: Research on Southeast Asia. Problems and Suggestions. Am. Anthropologist, p. 151-52. Heine Geldern, 1945, p. 142. Keuning, J. 1955: Enggano, de geschiedenis van een verdwenen cultuur. Indonesie, 3, p. 177-211. 2 Heine Geldern, 1945, p. 143. 2 H. R. VAN HEEKEREN culture had been recognized as a more or less complete unit. However, we should keep in mind that the term suggested is only a provisional one and that subsequent research may induce us to restrict its use to a considerable extent. Not only is it possible that there existed several distinct, though interrelated, Bronze Age Cultures in Further India and Indonesia, but it becomes increasingly clear that during the period in question, Indonesia was affected not only by influences from Indo-China, but also by more direct contacts with China." We observe that Heine Geldern considers Indonesia and Indo-China, at the period in question, as a cultural unity. This period we might also call Proto-Historic, because as we shall see later, the most ancient script dates from this period 3 and the oldest Chinese chronicles mention the Proto-Malayan (Indonesian) population of Indo-China of that period.4 Knowledge of the Bronze-Iron Age of Indonesia derives mainly from the following sources: 1. Stray finds which have been acquired by museums through purchase or gifts. These consist of bronze axes, spear-heads, daggers, ceremonial axes, kettle drums and vessels, bracelets, rings, pendants, beads and other ornamental and utilitarian articles.5 2. Hoards of bronze objects either by themselves or accompanied by earthenware, found by the population and sold to archaeological officials or to the Museum at Djakarta. 3. Descriptions and excavations of groups of megaliths in Java, Sumatra, Celebes and Borneo. 4. Descriptions and excavations of urn cemeteries in Java, Sumatra, Celebes, Salajar and Sumba. 3 Mr. Basoeki, assistant of the author, discovered some Chinese characters on the tympan of a kettle drum from the Island of Koer. The script has not yet been identified but the inscription probably indicates a certain period of regnal years. Two more kettle drums with Chinese characters are known to exist outside Indonesia. One of them of a type Heger I has the inscription: "sixth year of the rule of Konang wou ti", i.e. 30 A.D. The inscription on the second drum, which is in the British Museum at London, reads: "made by Chang Fu in the seventh month of the fourth year of the rule of Chieng Hsing". This rule was about 226 A.D. 4 Maspero, 1918. 15 These finds are described in: van der Hoop, 1941, p. 184-390; van der Hoop, Jaarboek Bataviaasch Genootschap, 1942-1947; van Heekeren, Jaarboek Bataviaasch Genootschap, 1948--1951, p. 35-58. THE BRONZE-IRON AGE OF INDONESIA 3 5. The excavations in North Annam of the classical settlement and necropolis at Dong So'n which informs us about the character of the Dongson Culture. 6. Studies and articles on kettle drums in South East Asia including Indonesia. 7. Chinese chronicles which give us important information about the population of the continent of South East Asia as they found it in the year 100 B.C. 8. Working-hypotheses by Heine Geldern and others drawing attention to the inception and the origin of the Dongson Culture. 9. Proto-Historic traditions which have survived up to the present in some more or less isolated parts of Indonesia. The first collector of Proto-Historic objects such as bronze axes and kettle drums who described and portrayed these objects was G. E. Rumphius. He published his findings in 1703.6 It struck him that the bronze axes had the appearance of human tools, but he could not free himself of the belief prevalent in Indonesia and elsewhere that these metal objects (and also the stone axes of the Neolithic) were thunderbolts. He even tried to give a scientific explanation, by assuming that the objects owed their existence to metallic vapours which became concentrated in the clouds by lightning, and were there condensed into objects in the shape of a tooth. The hole in the axe, and its sharp edge, he attributed to the action of the strong wind which always accompanies a thunderstorm. The population worshipped the bronze axes as it did the stone axes. Magic powers were ascribed to them and for that reason they were ~ometimes worn on the body or melted down into finger rings to be worn on the index finger when going to war. The axes were also used as a protection against lightning, and an extract from them as a remedy for fevers. Furthermore, a piece of such an axe melted together with some lead would make a bullet which could pierce through any resistance. Bronze axes were therefore most valuable, and one was reluctant to part with them. As is known, many of these axes fell into the hands of the Dutch after their victory over the army of Macassar on the Island of Buton in 1667, and in the course of Indonesian wars they changed hands repeatedly. The common man was not allowed to own them, but should pass them on to the ruler. A condemned life might 6 Rumphius, 1705. 4 H. R. VAN HEEKEREN be saved in exchange for a bronze axe. One hears continually of stories by the population that stone or bronze axes were found after lightning in coconut trees or in holes in the ground. A different significance is attached to these objects at Luwu and Wotu in Mid-Celebes (around the north-western part of the Gulf of Bone). A bronze axe there is considered to be the only incisor of the spirit called Longga, who loses this tooth once every year. This spirit is only an inch tall but may suddenly rise in height until his head reaches the clouds. The happy tooth finder may be certain to be protected against any enemy attacks. One may be inclined to consider that the foregoing observations belong to folklore rather than to archaeology. However, as early as 1882, J. J. A. Worsaae 7 came to the conclusion that some early culture had existed in the Malayan Archipelago which was conversant with the use of bronze utensils, and which had its origin in the continent of South East Asia. In 1898 H. E. Steinmetz 8 was able to give a description of megaliths in the eastern corner of Java, a description which may be considered as most accurate for that time. In 1902 A. B. Meyer and o. Richter published an account of the Bronze Age of Celebes in which they expressed the belief that cultural contacts had existed in that Age between Celebes, Flores, North Borneo and the continent of South East Asia. They went even so far as to look for the origin of this Bronze Age Culture in Eastern Europe.9 In fact they proffered ideas which are gaining in popularity particularly in recent years. Further important researches have been taking place in Indonesia as follows: In 1932 an excellent monograph on the megaliths of Southern Sumatra was published by A. N. J. van der Hoop.10 W. J. A. Willems in 1938 carried out some exemplary excavations of the urnfields of Sumba 11 and in a megalithic area in the eastern corner of Java.12 The author of the present book excavated in 1954 two sarcophagi in the Isle of Bali and in 1955 an urnfield in the Banten region of Java. 7 Worsaae, 1878/83. 8 Steinmetz, 1898. Meyer und Richter, 1902/03, p. 73-91. 1) 10 van der Hoop, 19:12. 11 van Heekeren, 1956a. 12 Willems, 1938.