An account of a botanical expedition to Lower Siam
John N. Miksic’s 1986 article revisits the megalithic sites of the Mahat valley in West Sumatra, first described by F. M. Schnitger in the 1940s and 1960s, reporting on a 1982 survey and September 1985 test excavations that recovered human skeletal material beneath carved upright stones. The piece serves as a preliminary site description published in anticipation of more detailed excavation reports, arguing that the valley’s stone monuments represent a pre-Islamic regional phenomenon rather than an isolated cultural anomaly.
Summary
Schnitger’s account of “Aoer Doeri” (modern Aur Duri) in Forgotten Kingdoms of Sumatra (1964) was lyrical but imprecise, offering sketches of ten carved motifs but little systematic analysis. Miksic located the valley in 1982 only after returning to Yogyakarta and finding a map in Schnitger’s earlier 1940 article, which placed Aur Duri on the upper Batang Mahat, a tributary joining the Kampar Kanan downstream from the brick stupa at Muara Takus. The existence of a Dutch pesanggrahan (colonial rest house) in Aur Duri likely explains how Schnitger came upon the site and why he subsumed the entire valley under a single village name, whereas indigenous inhabitants call it Mahat after the river.
The 1985 test excavations at Bawah Parit, conducted by the National Research Centre for Archaeology, revealed that the stones functioned at least in part as burial markers. Skeletal material was recovered from beneath two upright stones with carved decoration, with the deceased positioned in a specific orientation. No grave goods or associated artifacts were found. Miksic cautions against assuming all stones in the valley served funerary functions, noting that oral traditions collected from residents suggest the tradition of stone use—if not erection—continued until very recently.
The article situates the Mahat valley within a broader regional context of stone monument construction in West Sumatra, identifying the most common stone shape as the “kris hilt” type, also found at Balubus, Guguk, Suliki, and as far away as Pagarruyung. Miksic emphasizes that the valley’s pre- and proto-history remains rudimentarily known and that the reconstruction will be complex, fitting the cultural complexity of the province’s inhabitants.
Key Findings
- Test excavations at Bawah Parit (September 1985) recovered human skeletal material beneath two carved upright stones; the deceased were laid on their sides facing southwest, feet to the southeast, with hands crossed over the genital area, and heads placed directly beneath the stones (p. 27).
- No grave goods or other artifacts were found in association with the burials; the bones were in a state of almost complete disintegration, limiting the potential for radiocarbon or comparative dating (pp. 27, 32).
- The Mahat valley contains approximately 1,000 stones distributed across multiple contexts: scattered over fields (Bawah Parit), along ridge tops (Ateh Sudu), in alignments (Ronah), and as isolated individuals (Koto Tinggi) (p. 30).
- The valley is approximately 5 km in diameter and roughly circular, surrounded by mountains including Bukit Dingin (1,597 m) and Gunung Gedang (2,060 m); the only access road descends from a pass between these peaks (pp. 29–30).
- The valley’s population comprises six suku in decreasing order: Melaya, Doma, Piliang (and Caniago), Kampai, Ketopang, and Mandeling; the Melaya, Piliang, and Kampai are considered original inhabitants, the others pendatang (newcomers) (p. 30).
- Schnitger’s original description appeared in a 1940 article in the Tijdschrift van het Koninklijk Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundige Genootschap (vol. 57, pp. 397–403) and was later expanded in his 1964 book Forgotten Kingdoms in Sumatra (Leiden: Brill) (p. 32).
Conclusion
Miksic’s definitive takeaway is that the Mahat valley’s megalithic tradition, while not yet datable with precision, was a pre-Islamic phenomenon that formed part of a broader regional pattern of stone monument construction across West Sumatra. The rediscovery of sites first reported nearly fifty years earlier underscores that the province’s pre- and proto-history will prove complex to reconstruct, a complexity that mirrors the cultural diversity of its present inhabitants.
Context
- The article draws on Schnitger’s 1940 and 1964 publications as its primary historical source, supplemented by Miksic’s own 1982 field survey and the 1985 National Research Centre for Archaeology excavations directed by Drs. Haris Sukendar.
- The study contributes to the historiography of West Sumatran prehistory by correcting and extending Schnitger’s imprecise geographical and ethnographic descriptions, and by establishing a baseline for future archaeological investigation in the Mahat valley.