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Ref ID: 37298
Ref Type: Journal Article
Authors: Adhityatama, Shinatria
Triwurjani,
Yurnaldi, Dida
Wahyudiono, Joko
Ramadhan, Ahmad Surya
Dhony, Muslim Dimas Khoiru
Suryatman,
Abbas, Abdullah
Darfin,
Lukman, Alquiz
Pratama, Aldhi Wahyu
Bulbeck, David
Title: The Mid-Second Millennium a.d. Submerged Iron Production Village of Pontada in Lake Matano, South Sulawesi, Indonesia
Date: 2023
Source: Asian Perspectives
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/asi.2023.a909233
Abstract: By the mid-second millennium a.d., Indonesians were already familiar with iron tools. One of Indonesia's main centers of iron production is the Lake Matano area in the hinterland of East Luwu, South Sulawesi, eastern Indonesia, renowned for its nickeliferous iron ore. Research in Lake Matano conducted during 2016–2022 succeeded in documenting a submerged village with remnants of an iron processing industry dating to the late first millennium a.d. In this article, we describe a second submerged site associated with processing iron, which included forged iron implements. Occupation at this site, called Pontada, is dated to between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries a.d., before the site sank beneath the surface of Lake Matano. Written and archaeological evidence suggests that its antiquity corresponds to when the empire of Majapahit in eastern Java imported nickeliferous iron from Lake Matano and traded it throughout coastal Luwu.
Volume: 62
Number: 2
Page Start: 159
Page End: 183