Made Cave Cermets Mask

Whether the computer is already known at the time of Majapahit Kingdom? Claudio Giardino had stopped getting the question. "I do not think in that direction," said archaeologist from University of Arkansas - Rome Centre, Italy.

The question arises because the mask of bronze artifacts found in the Gua Made (Made cave), Jombang, the material is a mixture of clay (ceramics) and metals (metal). This material is commonly known as cermets (ceramic-metal) that is currently used to make computer chips. Chemical analysis was performed Giuseppe Pulitani Experimental Archaeology Laboratory at the Colonna, Rome.

Thursday, August 11, 2011 last week, at the Faculty of Humanities University of Indonesia, Depok, Dr. Claudio Giardino and Professor Dr Agus Aris Munandar give public lectures on Made Cave site. Research on the cave that is located near the center of the capital of Majapahit has been conducted since 2006 by Indonesian and Italian scientists.

In May, the Laboratory of Metal in Milan issued a finding that the Made cave's artifacts is came from 3,000 years before Christ. If true, this result is surprising because Jombang would change the map of world civilization. Hometown Nurcholish Madjid and Abdurrahman Wahid could be considered as the centre of human deployment to Southeast Asia and Austronesian, instead of Yunnan in southern China.

The findings are the subject of discussion of international scientists in the Department of Archaeology University of Bologna, Italy. From Indonesia attended the UI archaeologists, among others, Agus Aris Munandar and Wanny Rahardjo. "It turns out the Milano lab results was wrong," he said. According to Agus, the scientists are not certain period bronze mask was made. Could the era before Christ until the 10th century to the 14th in the kingdom of Majapahit. To determine the chronology, they are still awaiting the thermo lumine scence test at the University of Oxford.

The Made Cave's excavations in 2006 and 2007 in Made village, Kudu district at Jombang regency it found a number of artifacts. There are 100 masks with a variety of arts, the women breast-feeding statues, and the statues of animals like elephants and wild boar, carts, and boats. The most interesting findings is the bronze mask of green, because it shows the important role of this region in ancient times.

Giardino said, in its heyday the cermets material is the only one in the world. It's nothing, most of the findings mask at the archaeological site were made of gold and wood. "This rediscovery." In terms of manufacturing technology, he said, simply. They make a mold so that a mask of the same shape.

Batter comes from clay mixed with metal powder. Soil materials taken from the Jombang paddy fields was famous fertile. The problem, of which the origin of the metal. Agus Munandar suspected it from the Imperial Chinese coins that are finely ground.

The experts at the University of Bologna concluded mask is thought to date from the 10th to the 14th AD. Agus explained, the mask has something to do with the site of the Majapahit Kingdom in Trowulan. Understandably, the Made Cave's bricks that used to build has the same size as the brick in Trowulan.

From the story of the village residents, the Made cave is an officials place of refuge when the Majapahit empire began to collapse. To secure important items, they planted them in the Cave Made.

The problem, bronze mask is not found in Trowulan which became the capital of Majapahit. "If it was older, obviously not part of the Majapahit Kingdom," said Agus. Archaeologists are now awaiting the results of the Oxford University laboratory. ***

Greater than the Dong Son?
Puzzle is still enveloped Made Cave site. To find answers, Agus Aris Munandar, University of Indonesia professor of archeology compare Pasemah sites in South Sumatra and Central Sulawesi in the Bada Valley.

Human statue in the Valley Bada featuring Mongoloid race faces, whereas the expression on the face of race Pasemah show Austramelanesoid. It turns out that there are two faces on bronze mask discovered in Cave Made. Not only that, this mask is found in abundance in Jombang. Though this ancient form of mask was found on the site Dong Son, Vietnam, famous for its bronze culture.

Bada pillar statue in the Valley have the same face with a bronze mask Made Cave. Both show a strange face, not face-Mongoloid Malays.

Moreover, said Agus, new hypotheses can be proposed that the casting of metal (bronze, iron) is coming from the prehistoric era of Indonesia (Java), and not from mainland Southeast Asia (Dong Son culture) as believed until now.

According to Agus, a big job to prove the hypothesis. "If the hypothesis is true, the result would change the history of civilization studies Indonesia and Southeast Asia," he said. *** [UNTUNG WIDYANTO | KORAN TEMPO 3623]