The Sambas hoard: bronze drums and gold ornaments found in Kalimantan in 1991
E. Edwards McKinnon’s 1994 article in the Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society examines the 1991 discovery of two Heger Type I bronze kettledrums and associated artifacts at Bukit Selindung in the Sambas district of West Kalimantan, situating the find within the broader archaeological and economic history of the region. McKinnon argues that the assemblage—combining Dongsonian bronze drums with Indian-tradition beads and gold ornaments—constitutes one of the earliest material indications of a chiefly society or small polity in the Sambas region by the early first millennium C.E. (pp. 9–28).
Summary
The article addresses a significant gap in the archaeological record of western Kalimantan, a region that until 1991 was virtually devoid of nekara (bronze kettledrum) discoveries compared to Sumatra, Java, and the eastern Indonesian islands. McKinnon reports on two concurrent events: the identification of a c. 12th–14th century settlement at Sabung Mandala (February 1990) and the chance discovery of two bronze drums by local farmers on the eroding slopes of Bukit Selindung (May 1991). The drums were found positioned vertically, one above the other, filled with soil, beads, glass, and gold ornaments—a configuration McKinnon interprets as suggestive of an inhumation with grave goods, a practice known from the north coast of Java for the same period (p. 21).
The article then pivots to the better-known Sambas hoard of Hindu-Buddhist images (now in the British Museum), which McKinnon re-examines in light of his 1993 field visit. He successfully identifies the findspot as the hamlet of Parangai (formerly rendered “Pelangi Sabong” in 1948 reports), located on the Sungai Parangai in the Sabung Sanggau subdistrict, confirming Tan’s original description of a site approximately fifteen miles from Sambas by river (pp. 23–25). This geographic correction resolves a decades-old uncertainty about the hoard’s provenance.
Finally, McKinnon integrates the Bukit Selindung finds with the region’s long history of gold production. He notes that the Sungai Sebangkau and its tributaries, including the Sungai Buduk, were significant alluvial gold sources exploited from at least the late eighteenth century by Chinese miners, and that much of Java’s gold may have originated in Kalimantan by the mid-to-late first millennium C.E. The proximity of these gold sources to the drum findsite, combined with the presence of gold ornaments within the drums, suggests that indigenous gold-seeking and trade networks were already active in the area during the Dongson period (pp. 25–27).
Key Findings
- The two Heger Type I drums measure: Drum 1 — H. 50 cm, D. 68.5 cm, base D. 76 cm, with a twelve-pointed star tympanum; Drum 2 — H. 51.2 cm, D. 66 cm, base D. 68.5 cm, with a rarer fourteen-pointed star tympanum. Both are approximately 4 mm thick in metal (p. 18).
- The artifact assemblage recovered from within the drums comprises 164 carnelian beads, 19 banded agate beads, 423 glass seed beads (216 black, 190 red, 10 green, 7 blue), eight glass bracelets, four copper-bronze bracelets, and five bronze circlets (p. 18).
- Approximately 50 grammes of gold ornaments were reportedly found, including 43 spherical beads with spiral (“pineapple”) decoration, one small rectangular bead, and two coiled gold wire hangers; these were sold by the finders before official recovery (p. 21).
- The Sambas hoard (British Museum) comprises two standing Buddha images of silver and gold, two seated Buddha images, four standing Bodhisattvas (including two or four Padmapani forms), and an incense burner, dated to the 8th–10th centuries C.E. (p. 23).
- The Bukit Selindung site is situated at approximately 150 m above sea level on a sandy ridge, now several kilometres inland from the coast due to coastal accretion over the centuries; the area shows evidence of an extended habitation continuum from the early first millennium through the 19th and early 20th centuries (pp. 12, 23, 26).
- The drums bring the confirmed total of nekara finds in Kalimantan to four (possibly five), making this one of only the second such discoveries in the island (p. 12).
Conclusion
McKinnon’s definitive takeaway is that the convergence of Dongsonian bronze technology, Indian-tradition bead-making, and local gold resources at Bukit Selindung points to the existence of an early polity in the Sambas region by the early first millennium C.E.—potentially predating the Indianising influences documented at Kutai (c. 5th century C.E.) and Si Kendeng in southern Sulawesi. The find, together with the Sambas hoard and the region’s documented gold wealth, establishes western Kalimantan as a node in early maritime trade networks connecting the Indian Ocean world with the interior of Borneo, and signals that much more evidence of ancient trade remains to be recovered in this still under-explored region (pp. 26–27).
Context
- McKinnon’s analysis draws on the collections of the Musium Negeri Kalimantan Barat (Pontianak), the British Museum (Sambas hoard), and his own 1993 field visit to the Bukit Selindung and Parangai sites; the article also incorporates unpublished reports from the Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan (1991/92 survey report) and personal communications from local informants.
- Historiographically, the article extends the 1948–49 JMBRAS discussions of the Sambas hoard (Tan, Dobby, Braddell, Nilakanta Sastri, Quaritch Wales, Harrisson) by correcting the hoard’s findspot, integrating the new Bukit Selindung material, and arguing for a deeper prehistory of political complexity and trade in the Sambas region than previously recognised.