Day Nine

Rubble

Excavation at the unit U6T6 continues. We were finally at our 75th centimetres below the datum point and proceeding down to another 15 centimetres. Slowly and steadily, we were revealing more of the unit and obtaining larger amount of artefacts. Sadly, we also had to deal with the increasing amount of brick rubble in each spit. They were a nuisance due to their weight and the chore required to dispose of them. Nonetheless we power through. Finally, the northern portion of the unit, north of the wall that cuts diagonally across the unit, the floor was revealed. Excavation in the northern area had to cease. Thankfully, the southern portion of the unit still remains viable to be excavated to a deeper depth. Thus, from today onwards, we proceeded to excavate and emphasize on the southern portion. Today I had another of the Es Cincau without the Cincau. It was refreshing but I knew that I was just pushing my luck and sooner or later, I would pay for my curiosity and end up heading to the toilet very often. “Big 2” game was still part of the routine and still none emerge as the “champion” of the game. Time will tell whether who would claim supremacy.

Love,

Michael

Day Eight

The quirky Cincau (Grass Jelly) Man with his prominent white safety helmet.

Today we finally plucked up enough courage to try Es Cincau (Iced Grass Jelly Drink) from the vendor whom we have all come to affectionately know as ‘The Cincau Man’. The Cincau man is this quirky and cheery character we see everyday pushing his little blue wooden cart hawking es cincau in a white safety helmet and sometimes even dressed to match the pink drink he sells. It comes in a little plastic bag and is filled with a bright pink syrupy drink with generous portions of dark green ‘cincau’, or jelly made from a certain type of leaf.

Brave ventures aside, we almost completed Spit 5 (60cmbd – 75 cmbd) today. We thought we had completed the front part of Spit 5 yesterday, but after taking measurements, we realised we had about 8 cm deeper to go, and so we spent the entire day working on completing Spit 5. The ground is still filled with lots of bricks and rubble so its slightly tough to work through with small tools. No matter, we are probably going to hijack the hoe tomorrow to create more damage.

We collected quite a bit of artefacts from Spit 5. It probably is the most artefacts-dense compared to the previous spits so far. There were heaps of shells and earthenware, some stoneware, a couple of Chinese and Bantenese coins and blue and white porcelain.

Love,

Christabel

Day Seven

Scaling up the 30m Minaret of the famous Masjid Agung

Yesterday we had a blissful day-off, in the morning we did some analysis of the faunal material found last year in Surosowan Palace. Later, we went for a walk through the markets of Banten Lama and climbed the Masjid Agung (the minaret of the Muslim mosque), which was built in the late 16th century and is among the oldest examples of Muslim architecture in the area as described by Claude Guillot in his book ‘The Sultanate of Banten’. In the afternoon we visited the local Batik factory, which draws upon patterns found on ceramics excavated from the archaeological sites of the region for its designs.
Today, was the fifth day of excavation, we spent the first half of the day finishing off SPIT IV in the southern end of the unit. We excavated a lot of artefacts including various types of ceramics, shells, and animal bones. The brick wall that we came across a couple of days ago was also exposed more fully. We had our customary two-hour lunch break at 12pm where we headed back to the mess. At 2pm, we began on SPIT V (60 – 85 centimetres below the datum point) with Christabel working hard with the hoe. We uncovered more artefacts, mostly earthenware and other ceramics, as well as some Chinese and Bantenese coins.
Look out for more updates on the excavation in tomorrow’s entry by Christabel.
Love,
Cherylyn

Day Five

The completion of Spit 3

The excavation continues at unit U6T6. We were hoping that today we could obtain greater quantities of artefacts and in addition, shed some information on the wall that exists around the middle section of the unit. The sky was overcast in the morning and it was a welcome relief after a few days of hot scorching morning sun. The excavation progresses slowly at first. It was due to the rubble that was present within the layer of soil. However, there were more artefacts being excavated this time because of the depth we were digging in. Slowly, artefacts such as earthenware, clay pipes, and porcelain shards were discovered.  One of the more interesting artefacts included a projectile from a bullet which could be dated from the World War 2 era or the revolution that happened around 20 years ago. It was also interesting to note that, though today was a Saturday, there were not many children or people playing soccer. We would have thought that such a nice day today may invite teams to head down to the field to showcase their skills. By the afternoon, we managed to excavate till the wall and realised it extended downwards and it stretches to neighbouring chambers. Artefacts such as a Chinese celadon plate with possibly Manchurian character markings, clay pipes and other earthenware started to emerge as well. This greatly boosted our morale after several days of ploughing through brick rubbles. As usual, crowds started gathering around our tents to provide some positive distractions from the excavation during the late afternoon.

Love,

Michael

Day Four

We started digging on a new level today. We use a system called ‘Spit/Lot’, and every ‘spit’ for us is set at 15 cm (this is set arbitrarily). So every spit we start on means we would go down by 15 cm. Today we started on Spit 3, which is digging down from 30 cmbd to 45 cmbd. It is approximately 60cm down from the ground. We painstakingly screened all the soil coming out from Spit 3, just to make sure we don’t lose any precious finds and information. Basically what we do is to pour buckets of soil over a giant metal mesh, shake it vigorously and then pore over the remains to look for artifacts. We didn’t have much interesting finds today but that’s okay, I guess it builds up our perseverance and dedication which I think is important for aspiring archaeologists.

In the evening after a rousing game of cards, we helped Kay with some bones identification analysis. She has these bags of bones from last year’s excavation done outside the Surosowan Palace and armed with diagrams she provided, we tried our best at identifying those bones, such as which animals they belonged to (mostly cows) and which parts they came from. It was a steep learning curve but it sure was pretty fun.

Love,

Christabel

Day Three

Today was the second day of excavation at Fort Speelwijk, we arrived bright and early at 8:20 am ready for another day of digging, this time starting at SPIT II. We were helped out by a local worker who removed 15cm of soil whilst Christabel, Michael, Chen, and I screened for artefacts. There were quite a lot of artefacts including glass and ceramics such as blue and white porcelain, earthenware, and stoneware. Various faunal remains were also recovered including small animal bones and shells. Special finds of the day include some clay pipes and bantenese coins. We attracted a crowd of local children who sat around the unit and watched as we went about our work, which provided both us and them with a source of entertainment. Ending the day at 4:30 pm, we packed up, making sure to fill in the recording sheets and take the appropriate measurements of our finishing depths. We headed back to the mess, with the rest of the Archaeology Team, ready for dinner, card games, and sleep.

Love,
Cherylyn

Day Two

We started on our excavation at Fort Speelwijk today, the morning was spent waiting for the excavation units to be demarcated according to the cardinal points. This was done by the local surveyor, Pak Odin, who is from the Conservation Office in Serang, and a veteran excavator, Obaly, who has been engaging in various archaeological surveys since the 1970s.

We recorded the necessary measurements of the 4 x 4 metre excavation unit that had been assigned to us before we started digging. By 10:00am we were ploughing our way through the topsoil going down arbitrarily by 15cm. Our progress was slow due to the conditions of the unit, which contained a mix of stone rubble and extremely hardy plant roots. The occasional sleeping child and bleating goats provided a welcome distraction from the heat. The kind locals also erected a shelter for us, which was great way to escape from the blazing sun. We found some shells, blue and white porcelain, earthenware, glass, and stoneware, which is pretty significant for the amount of soil we have shifted and we hope to find more as we dig deeper.

Love,

Cherylyn, Michael and Christabel (Team Keropok)

The beginning

As volunteers, and aspiring archaeologists, we thought it would be an exciting opportunity to expand our knowledge of archaeology in Indonesia. Having been involved in several projects in Singapore with our mentor, Lim Chen Sian, we volunteered for this undertaking in Banten Lama (“Old Banten”). After a short flight from Singapore to Jakarta, and a two hour car ride, we arrived in Banten Lama and settled in at the Pusat Penelitian dan Pengembangan Arkeologi Nasional (National Research and Development Centre of Archaeology, affectionately known as ‘the mess’) on the 4th of July. We were quickly introduced to the archaeology team working on archaeological sites in Banten Lama comprising of Pak Sonny Wibisono, Ibu Naniek Harkantiningsih, Pak Sarjiyanto and Kay Makino.

On the 5th of July, Pak Sargiyanto took us on a tour around the various archaeological sites in Banten Lama, including Surosowan Palace, Fort Speelwijk, a Chinese cemetery and a Chinese mosque. We also visited the local museum (Banten Lama Museum Complex), the only Chinese temple and around the villages and paddy fields.

Where the water comes in to the palace from underground pipes from a massive man-made reservoir about 2km away.

The Chinese Mosque

We will be starting our excavation at Fort Speelwijk tomorrow, so do check our blog for more interesting updates.

Love,

Cherylyn, Michael and Christabel