Notes on some further archaeological discoveries in Pahang
W. Linehan’s 1930 article reports a series of archaeological finds from the Tembeling river basin in Pahang, extending his earlier 1928 survey of the same region. The paper documents objects ranging from Neolithic stone tools to early Ming porcelain, with particular emphasis on the Bukit Jong site, which Linehan interprets as evidence of a stone-to-iron transition culture in the interior of the Malay Peninsula.
Summary
Linehan’s paper is essentially a catalogue of objects recovered from the Tembeling and its tributaries between 1928 and 1930, with I. H. N. Evans of the F.M.S. Museums providing expert commentary on several specimens. The finds span a wide chronological range: a four-eared red earthenware vessel dated to no later than the Sung period (960–1279 A.D.), a fragment of deep blue glass bracelet attributed to the Iron Age, and a small porcelain jar possibly of early Ming date. Stone implements dominate the assemblage, including quoit discs (one of an unusual lipped type), a shouldered adze head, a bark-pounder with a tang, and various adze heads and cutting tools.
The most significant contribution of the paper is the cumulative evidence from Bukit Jong, where Linehan and local finders recovered a stone bracelet, quoit disc, bark-pounder, four stone adze heads, thirteen ancient iron implements (including a socketed spear-head), bronze fragments, a clay mould for a cooking vessel, rock crystal, iron slag, and cord-marked pottery. Linehan argues that the co-occurrence of stone and iron tools at this single site points to a transitional phase in which stone implements continued in use alongside the earliest, still crude iron technology. He cautions that a definitive conclusion requires more careful excavation, but the assemblage is presented as the first clear evidence of such a transition in the Peninsula.
A secondary thread concerns the three-holed stone implement from Labu, which a local informant (Wan Alam) attributed to the manufacture of triple-strand rattan rope. Linehan expresses scepticism about this explanation, noting the wear patterns on the implement do not match the described use, and suggests the object was more likely a pre-Malay artefact later repurposed by Malay inhabitants.
Key Findings
- The shouldered adze head from Burau on the Pahang river is, apart from a specimen of unknown provenance in the Taiping Museum, the only shouldered adze head hitherto discovered in Malaya, definitively establishing the type’s existence in the Peninsula (p. 315).
- The Bukit Jong assemblage comprises a stone bracelet, quoit disc, bark-pounder, four stone adze heads, thirteen ancient iron implements, bronze fragments, a clay mould, rock crystal, iron slag, and a porcelain jar—representing the most substantial single-site find in the Tembeling to that date (p. 317).
- The four-eared red earthenware vessel from the Sat river is dated to no later than the Sung period (960–1279 A.D.) and is comparable to a similar vessel from Sungei Batu Estate, South Kedah (p. 314).
- The lipped quoit disc from Bukit Sari on the Spia is of a most unusual type; Evans notes a model of the same type of unknown provenance exists in the Perak Museum (p. 314).
- The clay mould found in a rock niche at Bukit Jong appears designed for casting a simple cooking vessel and was discovered in situ alongside an iron-stained stalactite, suggesting the location was the intended site of manufacture (p. 317).
- The socketed iron spear-head brought by Che Selamah from Bukit Jong is of the same type as specimens previously found at Kuala Sungei Abai, Sungkai, and Sengat, indicating a distribution pattern for this weapon type across the interior (pp. 315–317).
Conclusion
Linehan’s central historical takeaway is that Bukit Jong provides the first clear evidence of a stone-to-iron transition culture in the Malay Peninsula, where the continued use of stone tools alongside early, poorly adapted iron implements indicates a prolonged period of technological overlap rather than abrupt replacement. He explicitly withholds a definitive conclusion pending more careful examination of the site, but the cumulative assemblage is presented as sufficient to establish the principle.
Context
- Linehan was a colonial-era administrator and amateur archaeologist working in the interior of Pahang; his finds were made in collaboration with local Malay informants and chiefs who supplied objects and traditional explanations.
- The paper relies on the F.M.S. Museums (Kuala Lumpur) as the institutional reference point, with Evans’ commentary serving as the authoritative classificatory voice; the study contributes to the early typological framework for Malayan prehistory that Evans was developing in the late 1920s.