COMPOSITIONAL ANALYSIS OF SUNGAI MAS, KUALA SELINSING AND SANTUBONG GLASS BEADS

Abstract

Sungai Mas, Kuala Selinsing or Pulau Kalumpang and Santubong are the name of the ports that existed since the early of the AD centuries where they played part as the port of accumulator and supplier and afterward, flourished to be a renowned entrepot port in the 5 th or 6 th A.D., especially Sungai Mas and Santubong. Sungai Mas and Santubong, for instance are not only the entrepot but also places where the socio-culture along with the science and technology evolved, shaped by the combination of the locals and foreign exper- tise. Amongst the expertise of the locals’ Malay on the area is the skill to produce products such as earthen- ware in a massive quantity since the early of the century. Abundance of raw material around Bujang Valley and Santubong allows local communities to master in smelting activities and producing products from iron ore. The skill that initially belongs to the foreigners but later mastered by the locals in these three locations is the technology to produced and manufactured Indo-Pacific glass bead. Abundance of Indo-Pacific glass beads and its raw materials are discovered in Sungai Mas, Kuala Selinsing and Santubong. Based on the ab- solute dating conducted for these sites show that Kuala Selinsing has been manufacturing their Indo-Pacific glass beads since 2 nd A.D. meanwhile Selinsing and Santubong started in 6 th AD. This is justified by the dis- covery of the archeological finding in raw form which is glass lump used in producing the glass bead and the composition study which shows a different composition material with glass bead from India. The raw materials of glass suggested by Alastair Lamb in 1966 came from the Middle Eastern of Mediterranean in form of glass fragments. It can be concluded that the basic in the science and technology enable the locals’ communities to master the foreign technology for their advantage on that time when the Indo-Pacific glass beads became an important commodity from 2 nd A.D. to 11 th A.D.