By Mokhtar Saidin

I have been reading with considerable interest the writings of Murad Merican in ApaKhabar. Professorial. I was most drawn to the catchy narrative of the individuals of Penang in the past 100 years or so. And, the places. His mother was his first history teacher. She once took a young Murad Merican to a site of historical significance in Minden!

That was the address of my workplace, Universiti Sains Malaysia, for 34 years from 1987.

My own line of work, archeology, wasn’t centred on Penang. It focuses on a location that launched the civilisation of South East Asia!

The place is Sungai Batu, six km from Sungai Petani. For context, those drawn to Satay Semeling would sniff out Sungai Batu with ease. It is in the vicinity.

Travelling to the (new) coastal front of Tanjung Dawai from Sungai Batu shall take about 20 mins. Some 2,600 years ago, Sungai Batu was a lot closer to the seafront.

This site is now Sungai Batu Archaeological Complex, known by the Malay acronym, KASB.

It was discovered by the Centre of Global Archaeological Research, USM. I was with the centre.

Back in 2007, the National Heritage Department requested this USM centre to uncover the fuller story of Bujang Valley.

We proceeded by conducting paleoenvironmental mapping, a means of tracking the “physical and biological change in human existence.”

Why the desire to uncover things still? British experts took an interest in this locale from the 1840s. As in the case of our USM team, Penang was their launcher.

The findings since the British endeavours have been consistent and over time this tended to be predictable.

It revolved around Hindu-Buddhist’s temple monuments, entrepot and ceramics originating from China, Arab, and Southeast Asia. There were also beads of Indian and Arabian origins.

Our USM team made the breakthrough; unearthed during scientific excavations at the Sungai Batu complex, covering a one hectare area. This was from 2009 to 2021.

Our USM team found what was an iron smelting workshop that commenced operations from the 788 BCE period.

There were segments of jetties/port that preceded the iron smelting centre by some 200 years.

Two years ago I left USM on reaching the retirement age. That has not disrupted the archeo- tourism package I introduced at Sungai Batu with PhD holders as tour guides. Visitors get to try out excavation work, with quality story telling by experts.

A spectacle at the site is what was the Harbour master’s premises. This was buried. We found steps, flooring and the workspace of the Harbour master.

What was the driver of Kedah Tua’s economy? Iron industry, and a high-tech sector at that.

The process required a minimum melting temperature of 12000C!

Kedah Tua’s iron ingots were traded worldwide when the communications system was, well nonexistent, probably, I must add.

The then trending terms for iron ingots were inspired by the Kedah products and the main Kedah port.

I was born in Kampar, but, I was so proud to learn these words.

Kadaram and Indian words for Kataram were the Indian words for Kedah black iron ore. The Kedah port was known in Europe as Queda- port. China referred to it as Chieah-cha- port. And Arab called the main product Kalah- black iron.

So much so that the Sanskrit language recognises this civilisation as “Kataha” which means iron bowl. Kedah iron products were traded the world over.

Scholars of the era, Al-Kindi and Al-Biruni, regarded the Kalah iron as one of the best irons in the world. They put this fact on record.

I say that Kedah Tua is a source of national pride. It defined us. Now Kedah Tua and Sungai Batu could well bring in the tourism revenue and can be an economic source in the form of a heritage tourism industry.

We are certainly not inferior to Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, Indus, Greece, Rome , Maya, Peru, Borobudur and Angkor.

Prof Mokhtar was the director of Global Archeological Research, USM.