The University of Malaya Archaeological Society’s survey of the Kuala Muda area (South Kedah), in July 1956
Foong See Tonn’s 1959 report documents the University of Malaya Archaeological Society’s pilot survey of the Kuala Muda district in south Kedah, conducted in July 1956. The article catalogues eight sites—ranging from shell mounds and laterite structures to earthworks and inscribed stones—many of which local tradition attributes to the legendary figure Raja Bersiong, and records additional finds in the broader Kedah region. The survey was undertaken as a preliminary reconnaissance to determine whether the area warranted full-scale excavation in 1957 in conjunction with the Federation of Malaya Museums Department.
Summary
The report emerges from a decision taken in January 1956 by the Society’s committee, in consultation with G. de G. Sieveking, to investigate the Kuala Muda district. Initial arrangements were made by acting Field Director K. G. Tregonning in April, with the cooperation of the Kedah Government, the British Adviser E. C. G. Barrett, and local administrators including the D.O. Sungai Patani and the Kathi of Kota Kuala Muda. The field team, comprising eleven members including Dr P. E. de Josselin de Jong, spent the long vacation of July 1956 in the area (p. 209–210).
The survey’s principal contribution is a systematic, if brief, site-by-site account of the archaeological remains encountered. The sites span a range of material cultures and periods: prehistoric shell mounds (Kampong Guak Kepah), megalithic and Hindu-Buddhist stone monuments (Neo Bah Estate, Bukit Batu Lintang), laterite and brick structures of uncertain function (Kampong Matang Pasir), earthworks of possible defensive or ceremonial character (Bukit Batu Lintang, Kampong Pinang Tunggal), and an inscribed stone bearing a Koranic quotation (Kampong Toh Soh). A recurring thread is the local attribution of these features to Raja Bersiong—a flagstaff, a fort, a well, a tombstone—suggesting that a single legendary figure has been superimposed on a heterogeneous archaeological landscape (pp. 210–212).
The report also notes the vulnerability of several sites to modern development. At Neo Bah Estate, quarrying for the Merdeka Bridge had already cut dangerously close to the stone pedestal, and further destruction was anticipated. At Kampong Matang Pasir, evidence of earlier unscientific digging was visible in the form of ill-shaped holes and unfinished trenches (p. 210). These observations underscore the urgency that motivated the survey and foreshadow the conservation concerns that would dominate Malayan archaeology in the decades that followed.
Key Findings
- Kampong Guak Kepah: Van Stein Callenfels’s 1934 shell-mound sites A and B had been locally destroyed; site C remained intact at approximately twenty feet square (p. 210).
- Neo Bah Estate (Tikam Batu): Quaritch Wales’s site 24 contained a 4 ft 2 in square stone pedestal (Raja Bersiong’s flagstaff) and several carved sandstone lingams; P.W.D. dynamiting for the Merdeka Bridge had approached the pedestal dangerously (p. 210).
- Kampong Matang Pasir: A mound approximately 100 ft long by 60 ft broad, covered with laterite blocks and orange-red bricks; a half-buried laterite structure 2½ ft square with a central hole 1 ft square and 1 ft deep (p. 210).
- Bukit Batu Lintang: A circular depression 30 ft in circumference on the summit, and a large square earthwork approximately 50 yards per side on the northern slope, locally called Raja Bersiong’s Fort; a grey square sandstone pedestal with a central square hole was later transferred to the Kedah Museum at Alor Star (p. 211).
- Kampong Pinang Tunggal / Kampong Toh Soh: A ditch approximately 100 yards long, 5 yards broad, and 3 yards deep (Raja Bersiong’s Fort); a tombstone whose first line Dr de Josselin de Jong identified as a Koranic quotation, with impressions taken for further study (p. 212).
- Sik and north Kedah: Three unusual trays recovered from road construction at Kampong Bendang Temminggat; an earth fort at Langgar (six miles from Alor Star); an old Malay fort at Si Putih, Padang Serai; and three concentric forts at Kota Aur, north of Siong (p. 212).
Conclusion
Foong See Tonn’s report establishes that the Kuala Muda area possesses a dense and diverse archaeological heritage spanning prehistoric, Hindu-Buddhist, and Islamic periods, much of it preserved in local memory under the unifying but misleading label of Raja Bersiong. The survey’s principal historical takeaway is that the region warrants urgent and systematic excavation before further development destroys the remaining evidence, and that the local traditions, while unreliable as chronology, serve as a useful index to the distribution of material remains.
Context
- The survey was a joint academic-governmental effort: the University of Malaya Archaeological Society provided the field team, while the Kedah Government and the Federation of Malaya Museums Department offered logistical and administrative support, reflecting the collaborative model of Malayan archaeology in the late 1950s (p. 209–210).
- The report draws on the earlier work of van Stein Callenfels (1934), Quaritch Wales (1940), and Sieveking (1956), positioning the Kuala Muda survey as a continuation of the systematic site-recording programme that these scholars had initiated across the Malay Peninsula.