Gold and Megalithic Activity in Prehistoric and Recent West Borneo
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PART III MEGALITHIC AND MICRO-MEGALITHIC First I published a book on stones, in four chapters; it distracted my mind from the worries of daily life and made me dwell among mists and coloured hazes. Lin Yu-lin, 1614 A. D. 83 CHAPTER 17 MEGALITHIC CULTURES IN HISTORICAL WEST BORNEO The opening chapter in this third section of our Data Paper is intended to give the necessary minimum of backg·round for a closer look at the curious association between gold and stone, already noted in passing in the previous section (II.8, etc.) and now to emerge as importantly persistent, beginning _with the pebble-beds and petroglyphic rock-carvings and cuttings at Jaong in the delta's earlier iron-working site. To understand what happened in the past--to try, that is, to reconstruct those happenings of a millennium or so ago--it is both needful and helpful to survey what has gone on in later times (and sometimes into the1 present century) in this same field of activity with stone-. On the basis of the _tpres.ent survey, supported by a separate bibliography for those who wish to pursue the subject further, we - must then more seriously consider, in following chapters, the meaning of some cuiious features in delta sites, starting with a £res� analysis of the archieological evidence from Jaong (III.18-21)t. From this Jaong experience, we offer a new ap proach to the particular aspect of megalithic which seems so especially to link with gold; micro-megalithic is the term we venture to propose (III.t22-23) to reflect the relationship be tween small, usually unshaped, pebbles and larger stone and the larger operations generally classed as "megalithic"'."'t-for in stance: megalith: one of the huge undressed items2 used in various prehistoric monuments. The humble pebble , closely spaced, belongs equally with the menhir and dolmen, Batu Gambar and Stonehenge, as the micro sibling of this thought through stone, we think. After a reassessment of Jaong in depth it is possible to see the hitherto puztzling "Tantric" shrine at �ongkisam, the later delta site, in a fresh light (III.24)t. Out of this inspec tion, with eyes aglow, comes time to take a widert·tlook again, and glance across the whole Southeast Asia landscape of stone and gold, to find what support there is more widely for our limited delta hypotheses (III. 25-26) and to relate all this to specific ritual and other accounts which triggered the whole process (IV.27-28)t. 85 86 There are four main areas with considerable discovered megalithic activity in West Borneo--and so far none of signifi cance in the rest of the island. These are now taken in se quence from north to south. a. Around Kota Kinabalu, Sabah Single menhirs (upright placed stones, always unshaped in Borneo) are scattered over quite a wide area in the foothills of Mt. Kinabalu--highest mountain in Southeast Asiat--where 3 in habited by the people broadly called "Kadazan" or "Dusun.t"t But the only major, concentrated and readily recognizable megalithic activity in Sabah is in 4 a narrow belt close to the Sabah state capital, Kota Kinabalu.t As nothing has yet been published on this work, it will be treated rather more fully than is neces sary for the other three areas, where the local literature is more adequate.t5 The motor road from Kota Kinabalu to Papar (opened in 1964) passes through wide areas of cultivated rice fields where iso lated standing stones form a striking part of the landscape, specifically after the fields have been flooded and while the padi is still young. One is over seven feet above ground; many are over five feet, massively proportioned. They mostly stand on bunds between rice fields; some, even more conspicuously6 , in the glittering waters inside the irrigation sawahs. The main part of the study was contfined to the main roads, with sorties up selected valleys and hillsides. In all, par ticulars were taken for 113 stones and two "stone substitutes" of wood (see below). Stones selected as representative of various "types" were visited and measured at distances between 20 and 1, 500 yards from the road, and also checked by air sur vey. The survey indicates a concentration of palpably "mega lithic" type of upright stones--technically menhirs--within a long strip of irrigated Kadazan Dusun rice land on the sub coastal plain between the low foothills and the immediate coastal band (often approximating to the railway line) whicht-is now occupied by Mohammedan Bajaus. Extensive inquiry and exam ination outside and beyond the ends of this strip only produced two small stones, both acceptable in the more familiar Sabah "oath-stone" context. These were just after Sungai Damit, beyond Tamparuli on the road past Tuaran to Kota Belud. Verbal reports indicate stones in the Tamparuli district, but investi gation in this area provided nothing except this small pair. It was also evident that there was nothing comparable in scale with regard to surviving megalithic remains to the north in the Kota Belud and Kudat road area, and again in the south on the now richly (but mainly recently) irrigated plain round Papar. 87 No doubt other upright stones were once erected and will be found later in these places ; but these do not constitute a con spicuous or visually significant part of the modern landscapeo, as they do north from Mile 23 on the Papar side to Mile 11 on the Tuaran side of Kota Kinabalu--a direct distance of under thirty miles, entirely populated by Kadazans. · Table 5 lists menhirs still standing conspicuously upright within sight of the main roads running north and south of Kota Kinabalu starting from the north. Table 5. Standing Upright Menhirs Located on Ground, Sabah Kadazan Area a) Kota Belud road (at Su�gei Damit) 2 (both small; see above) b) Tuaran road Miles 11-10 4 10- 9 3 9- 8 0 6- 7 3 12 c) Papar road Miles 6- 7 19 7-11 49 11-15 4 15-19 11 19-23 7 90 Total, upright 102 Taking the main megalithic belt as very roughly thirty miles long and half a mile deep (a fair average even allowing for the majtor part which is not under wet rice but in trees) there are nearly seven megaliths per square mile. In one place, during the July condition of padi growth, it was possible to count and check with field glasses no less than fourteen menhirs from one spot on the Papar road. These are usually well spaced, the nearest "pair" having one just under a hundred yards from the next--in this case one of five standing in the middle of flooded padi sawaho, 'tits neigh bor in the more usual position on top of an irrigation bund. 88 Although most stones are now on banked bunds, three of those visible were away from the irrigation altogether. There is strong reason for believing that others have been moved on to areas only opened up for irrigation in comparatively recent times ; others again have been moved out of the center of the sawahs, where they now present a considerable inconvenience to buffalo ploughing and other rice agriculture. Included in Table St are two large stones which have in fact fa llen over or been knocked down by buffalo and are lying on the top of bunds at the present time. It is probable that others so fallen would, nowadays, be incorporated into the sub structure of the bund themselves, acting as valuable reinforce ment and thereby rendered invisible. No doubt a number of fac tors have operated to reduce the possible numbers. Those present may represent a fraction of what might have been seen, say, at the turn of the century? Where there is no continuing, contem porary respect, stones would be deliberately moved, ditched, buried or broken up. This is well illustrated by results of a follow-up on a specific stone at the end of the survey, at Mile 6, close to Penampang, heart-land of the Kadaztans. This, a five foot high menhir, notably stands on dry grassland in frontt. of a house, opposite a creek in a sma ll area which has evidently never been irrigated or ploughed. On closer examination, we found, seven feet away behind this big stone, a pair of smaller ones, six inches apart and seven feet from the original. On the other side of the original, three feet away, was a very large stone which had fallen. A further twelve yards on, a fifth massive rock was aslant, not visible from the road.t· Eighty feet from this was the sixth of the group, a short but bhick upright menhir on the very edge of an eroding creek, seen on previous days from the road. The owner of this property, Mr. Raphael Jau, said that in his grandfather 's time this corner had still been jungle; it had never been under rice. In clearing it for housing and grazing, these stones, then all upright, were revealed. The balance had been knocked down by family buffaloes, one of them in his own lifetime. He was emphatic that they represent a "very ancient" burial ground, where bodies were placed in jars. The bones had long perished ; but pieces of the jars were some times found around in the ground, he said. With his•tpermission, in a few minutes we picked up a series of worn Chinese stonewtare sherds clearly not recent. Many other sherds were encountered near other menhirs as the study proceeded.