Museums officials have recently unearthed what is presumed to be the defensive wall and gate to Brunei's "ancient capital", Kota Batu, the Museums Department Director told The Brunei Times yesterday.
They have also discovered intact earthenware believed to date back 500 to 600 years ago, with more artefacts, a palace, and a mosque expected to be found as work continues in developing and opening up the 14th to 17th century site to the public and to facilitate further research.
Bantong Antaran said the construction of a shelter at the KB II site, located downhill of the tomb of Brunei's fifth ruler Sultan Bolkiah, had to be halted after discoveries of large wooden posts were made.
"We've found wooden and stone structures there. We presume that it might have been a defensive stone wall and probably, some wooden gate to the Kota Batu complex," the director said.
"Last Thursday, we found complete ceramic (artefacts) at one of the sites here," he added. It was believed that the artefacts were probably 500 to 600 years old.
With archaeological research on the ancient capital carried out since the 1950s, Bantong estimated the discoveries thus far were "not even half'' of what could potentially be found in the 120-acre area under the Museums Department's jurisdiction.
The director shared that authorities, had yet to find the old palace and mosque, among other buried artefacts within the Kota Batu Archaeological Park. "It's a long process," he remarked.
Faced with difficulties such as limited number of staff, the Museums Department looked to students as well as the potential for future collaboration with foreign experts to address the manpower issue.
Bantong had been speaking at the sidelines of a ceremony to "hand-over" the completed first stage of the second phase of the Kota Batu excavation and restoration project.
The works, which started in May last year, included connecting and upgrading existing walkways built in the 1980s, leading to sites around the area, that were previously disconnected from one another due to insufficient funds.
Now with a total budget of $2 million under the ninth National Development Plan (RKN 9), the department has used about $366,000 to connect and extend the causeways, erect rest huts and build a bridge to the remains of man-made island believed to serve a dock for small ships in the 15th to 16th centuries.
Bantong shared that their next plan is to develop the KB I site at a cost of roughly $1.5 million, which is believed to have been a burial site for royalty or VVIPs of Kota Batu. The KB II site would also be developed, after further investigation and excavation is carried out on the "wall" discovered there.
Plans were also in the pipelines to extend the walkways to the Subok Ridge, build bridges to allow entry into mangrove swamps in the area, erect a watch tower and introduce "many more facilities", for which the department will be applying for another budget after the RKN 9.
In developing such infrastructure in an area of both high archaeological and environmental values, Bantong assured that the necessary precautions were being taken.
"That's why when we build these walkways we have to be careful because there are still many more artefacts to be found. We try to minimise destruction and cutting of trees. Whenever we made any archaeological findings, sometimes we had to divert the causeway (or) even had to stop the project," he explained.
The contractor of the second phase of the restoration project said that they had built altogether roughly two kilometres of concrete walkways, 800 metres for the reinforced concrete bridge to Terindak Island and four rest huts.
Hii KiM Mee, the manager of Ha Hanafi Perkasa Sdn Bhd said that the majority of the construction work was done manually in light of the need to preserve the natural aspects of the area.
"As this is an archaeological site, we were not allowed to bring in big or heavy machinery. We also had to work around the larger trees and also the engineer asked us not to do a lot of excavation work, so it was a real challenge," he told The Brunei Times.
"You might realise that some the paths are not straight as we had to avoid sensitive remains." The Museums director yesterday led a delegation which included the Curator of Natural History, Yang Amat Mulia Pg Muda Omar Ali, son of His Royal Highness Prince Mohamed Bolkiah, and other relevant government officials around the newly-completed causeways.
The "launching" of the site will be announced to the public in the near future, a press release from yesterday's ceremony said.
Author: Ubaidillah Masli | Source: The Brunei Times via BruDirect [November 27, 2010]