The Acehnese past and its present state of study R. Michael ... - kitlv

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26 Daniel Perret such as letters from Giovanni Empoli, who reported the arrival of slaves from the Maldives Archipelago during his stay at Pasai around 1516 (Alvès 1999:119). Based on such sources, we get a picture of Pasai as a seaport connected to nearly all the coastal regions of South Asia in the fi fteenth and sixteenth centuries. At the turn of the second millennium, most of the coastal centres in India with connections to the Malay world had quite cosmopolitan populations themselves. Among these populations, the main foreign components generally consisted of traders of Egyptian, Yemeni, Omani, Iraqi, Persian or Turkish origin, depending on the time and place. The two high-ranking Persians whom Ibn Battuta met during his stay at Samudra around 1340, during the reign of Sultan Malik al-Zahir, probably originated from one of these cosmopolitan Indian cities. 2 It is therefore clear that throughout its history, a town such as Pasai exhibited a cosmopolitan blend of peoples with a signifi cant number of foreign merchants from the wider Indian Ocean world. Written sources from the beginning of the sixteenth century not only commented on traders, but also on the kinds of goods traded. Both Pasai and Aceh were major emporia, where goods coming from throughout the Indonesian Archipelago, including pepper, nutmeg, tin, gold, camphor, benzoin, ivory and elephants, were traded. Unfortunately, written sources tell us almost nothing about the structure and organization of the town of Pasai itself. There are no ancient maps available, and no comprehensive archaeological excavations have ever been conducted on its site. The only monuments still visible are Muslim tombstones. This chapter presents a summary of recent research on these materials and other evidence of early trading settlements in Aceh and its environs. A review of the limited archaeological surveys conducted and published on Aceh proper over the past 20 years demonstrates that ancient settlements have been located in three areas: the Lambaro Bay northwest of Banda Aceh, the Krueng Raya Bay approximately 30 km east of Banda Aceh, and the village of Beringin close to Lhokseumawe. E. Edwards McKinnon was the fi rst to publish information on the Lambaro Bay sites. As early as 1988, he made mention of the presence of Chinese ceramic shards, the earliest of which dated to the thirteenth century. He also discovered mainland Southeast Asian (Thai, Burmese and Vietnamese) ceramic shards there. Pottery similar to medieval South Indian and Sri Lankan ware was also found, as well as pieces of glass, bronze and iron fragments. At the time of McKinnon’s study, rectangular stone foundations were still visible, although underwater, near the Kuala Pancu site. One of them was estimated to measure approximately 50 m by 30 m. 2 They are the Islamic-law judge (qadi) Amir Sayyid al-Shirazi, and the Islamic legal scholar Taj-ad-din al-Isfahani (Ibn Battuta 1995:966).
Aceh as a fi eld for ancient history studies 27 Six years later, McKinnon, Lukman Nurhakim of the Archaeological Research Centre of Indonesia (Pusat Penelitian dan Pengembangan Arkeologi Nasional), Nurdin A.R. of the Aceh Museum and Pierre-Yves Manguin of the École Française d’Extrême-Orient, identifi ed several sites in the Krueng Raya Bay. The remains of an earthen wall, 3-4 m high, and dating to the sixteenth or the beginning of the seventeenth century, were discovered in Lhok Cut, close to the eastern tip of the bay. A layer located at the base of this structure yielded Chinese and Southeast Asian ceramic shards dating between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, as well as shards of Indian red pottery. Moreover, many fragments of gold jewellery were reportedly discovered at this site. The remains of ancient settlements have also been found in Cut Me and Ladong (McKinnon 1988, 2006a, 2006b). On the opposite side of the northern tip of the bay, the remains of an old fortress are still visible at Kuta Lubhok. According to oral tradition, the local population associated this building with the Chola kings of South India (Montana 1997:86). The third area for which the results of surveys have been published is Lhokseumawe. Remains related to the ancient towns of Samudra-Pasai have been found there, where they are still visible among shrimp ponds near the village of Beringin, kecamatan (sub-district) of Samudra. Among the fi nds there are Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese ceramics dating between the fi fteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries. 3 Several tombstones, which we will comment on later, confi rm the presence of a settlement there since the fi fteenth century or before. There is also a mound there known as Cut Astana (Palace Hill). It is approximately 4 m high and covers an area of about 800m². This mound appears to shelter a brick structure (Notulen 1884:51). To our knowledge, the location of the older site or sites, known from various sources and settled since the second half of the thirteenth century or before, has yet to be identifi ed. Without comprehensive archaeological investigations, however, we have to rely on written sources and oral tradition in an attempt to map the ancient settlements of Aceh. By going back in time, starting from the account of Tomé Pires, which dates to the beginning of the sixteenth century (Cortesão 1990:135- 48, 163), it is possible to identify the names of several coastal settlements whose foundation occurred in the fi fteenth century or before (Illustration 6). These included Aceh itself, which is mentioned for the fi rst time around 1520. The Hikayat Aceh recounts Aceh being founded by the merger of two settlements – Makota Alam and Dar ul-Kamal – located on op posite sides of a river (Iskandar 1958:72-5). 3 We would like to thank M.F. Dupoizat for her identifi cation of the pictures of ceramic shards collected during a brief survey conducted in Beringin in February 2006 (M.F. Dupoizat, personal communication, May 2006). These data fi t with those given by McKinnon 2006b:333.
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The Acehnese past and its present state of study R. Michael ... - kitlv

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