History Through Artefacts

Artefact 1: The Rosetta stone

The Rosetta Stone is an artefact discovered in mid-July 1799 by French soldiers in Egypt. It is believed to be made of granodiorite stele in which the structure is similar to granite rock that is dark-grained coloured rock. Stele means a stone generally known to be an ancient monument because of its gigantic size and normally equipped with carved text or paintings. In the context of Rosetta Stone, the text written on the top and the middle of this stone are in ancient Egyptian hieroglyph. Whilst at the bottom, the text written is in ancient Greek. It is a bilingual text. According to Andrews (1981), based on research and carbon dating, Rosetta Stone resides to be from 196 BC during Ptolemaic dynasty in Memphis city of Egypt at times of Ptolemy V’s ruling. This stone is said to be one of the biggest discovery of ancient artefacts because of the contents written on the stone that happens to open doors to the ancient world of Egypt.

Moving to the important part, which is the content of the Rosetta Stone, through translation led by Jean-François Champollion, it took a longer time to translate all those hieroglyph and ancient Greek texts, and this shows that the content on the stone is the key to the ancient Egyptian civilization. At that time, the significance of Rosetta Stone was that it was used as an art writing tool and was presented to the mass crowd as a milestone of what they have achieved. In the context of Malaysia, it is a resemblance of the “batu bersurat”. The texts written were also identified to be an open door for the new fields of industry in sciences. For example, Simpson and Dean (2002) did a research on “Arabidopsis” which is a mutant flower from ancient Egypt, and this research is about making the seed of the flower in excessive amounts. Other related research also shows that it can be used in the health field.

As for now, The Rosetta Stone is currently held in possession by the Britain government whereby this particular artefact has been placed in the national museum. Although there is ongoing research, Egypt government demands to have it returned from where it was taken (Edwardes & Milner, 2003).

Artefact 2: Thor's Hammer

Thor’s Hammer is an artefact that was found in Denmark during 900AD. The Mjöllnir amulets (relics) are said to have a resemblance similar to hammers which historians have linked to the Norse god Thor. According to the mythology of Norse, Thor is said to be a hammer-wielding god related with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, quality, the assurance of mankind, conjointly hallowing, recuperating and fertility. Holloway (2014) says that the same item was found in Kobelev, on the Danish island of Lolland, which had wordings that stated ‘this is hammer’. This proved that Thor myth deeply had an effect on Viking jewelry. The 1,100-year-old pendant was cast in bronze, and likely plated with silver, tin and gold.

The popular weapon of Thor was not as it were the image of the damaging control of the storm, and of fire from paradise, but moreover an assurance against the powers of fiendish and savagery (McCoy, 2016). This provided a sense of relief to society as it was used as a weapon to defend enemies or fight against anything against the culture of the people. The hammer was also said to be utilized in formal ceremonies to favor relational unions, births, and funerals as well (McCoy, 2016). This is an interesting artefact because Thor is said to be a mythical character in movies or series such as Avengers and Vikings. The discovery of Thor’s Hammer proves that this artefact is not just a myth, but a true item that has significance to society.

Artefact 3: Terengganu Inscription Stone (Batu Bersurat Terengganu)

According to Othman and Abdul Halim (1990), Terengganu Inscription Stone is an artefact discovered in 1887 by the villagers of Kampung Buluh, Hulu Terengganu, and was then brought to the nearby surau. Not knowing its historical value, the villagers used the inscription as a pedestal, which is often used to step onto before entering the main prayer hall. In 1902, a Terengganu nobleman came to Kampung Buluh accompanied by a friend, Syed Husin bin Ghulam al-Bokhori. After they both finished their prayer, they asked Penghulu Ali and a few villagers to put the inscription stone on a raft so that they can present it to the king, Sultan Zainal Abidin III. His Royal Highness gave orders for the inscription stone to be kept at Bukit Puteri and it was placed there for 20 years and later moved to several places before it was permanently kept in Terengganu State Museum (Abdul Razak, 2010).

The artefact is believed to have existed during the 14th century and dated as early as 702 Hijrah, that is 1303M, which makes it 717 years old this year. Furthermore, it explains about a Muslim leader named Mandalika (Othman & Abdul Halim 1990). On the stone, there is a note that was written in classic Malay Jawi that talks about the 14^th century which was heavily influenced by the Sanskrit language. Furthermore, it explains about Islamic law, and one of the laws talks about the penalty for those who cheat on their wives or husbands. The bottom part of the stone was broken and the remaining part of it is in the shape of a cuboid with the height of 84 cm and weight of 218.9 kg. Abdul Razak (2002) has also discussed about the mathematical elements contained on the inscription stone. The mathematical elements explained include numbers and amount, ordinal numbers, time (day, month, and year), measurement units and others.

Artefact 4: Gua Niah’s “Deep Skull”

The “Deep Skull” is the human cranium (upper part of the skull) remains found by famous British palaeontologists, Tom Harrisson and Barbara Harrisson, along with their team in 1958 at the Trader’s Cave. The cave’s location is about 200 meters away from Gua Niah’s West Mouth (a part of the Niah’s Great Cave complex) and the skull was excavated from a deep small trench called the “Hell Trench” (due to its heated surrounding in the afternoon sun). Due to the depth of the remain buried in the ground, it was given the name “Deep Skull”. Besides the cranium, several postcranial bones including a partial femur bone (thighbone) were excavated (Curnoe, Sauffi, et al., 2019), where the results of their radiocarbon dating on charcoal indicated that the remains are around 40,000 years old. Further test conducted by Graham Barker from Cambridge University in the early 2000s indicates that the “Deep Skull” is said to be 37,000 years old (Curnoe, 2016). Curnoe (2016) also states that the study conducted on the “Deep Skull” by Don Brothwell of Cambridge University in 1960 claims that the remains belonged to an adolescent male closely related, or evens a descendant, of Indigenous Australians (Tasmanian Aboriginals). However, recent study indicates that the “Deep Skull” most probably belonged to a middle-aged woman and had the affinity with contemporary indigenous people of Borneo (Curnoe, Datan, et al., 2016)

According to Weule (2018), the discovery of the “Deep Skull” stands as an early physical evidence of humans in South-East Asia and recent expedition conducted by Dr. Darren Curnoe and the Sarawak Museum on the Trader’s Cave in 2019 aims to gather further evidence on modern human movement to South-East Asia, which is said to occur between 60,000 and 70,000 years ago. It is speculated that the remains belonged to the descendant of the early humans in South-East Asia that survived the catastrophic super volcano eruption of Danau Toba about 74,000 years ago. The super volcano was located about 1,700km away from Trader’s Cave (where the “Deep Skull is discovered) and its continuous eruption for 2 weeks led to the death of most humans during that time when the volcanic ashes covers up the atmosphere, reducing the global temperature by 3.0 to 3.5 °C (5 to 6 °F) for several years (Gathorne-Hardy & Harcourt-Smith, 2003)

REFERENCES

Abdul Razak Salleh. 2002. Unsur matematik dalam persuratan Melayu lama Jawi. Kesturi 12

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Abdul Razak Salleh. 2010. Batu Bersurat Piagam Terengganu Dari Perspektif Matematik. Kertas Kerja Undangan, Seminar Batu Bersurat Terengganu, Muzium Terengganu, 18-19 April.

Andrews, C. A. (1981). The Rosetta Stone. London: British Museum Publications.

Curnoe, D. (2016, June 28). Deep Skull. Retrieved June 15, 2020, from The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/ancient-deep-skull-still-holds-big-surprises-60-years-after-it-was-unearthed-61572

Curnoe, D., Datan, I., Tacon, P. S., Ung, C. L., & Sauffi, M. S. (2016, June 27). Deep Skull from Niah Cave and the Pleistocene Peopling of Southeast Asia. Retrieved June 15, 2020, from Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution: https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2016.00075

Curnoe, D., Sauffi, M. S., Datan, I., & Goh, H. M. (2019, February). Femur associated with the Deep Skull from the West Mouth of the Niah Caves (Sarawak, Malaysia). Journal of Human Evolution, 127, 133-148.

Edwardes, C., & Milner, C. (2003). Egypt demands return of the Rosetta Stone. The Daily Telegraph, 20.

Gathorne-Hardy, F. J., & Harcourt-Smith, W. (2003). The super-eruption of Toba, did it cause a human bottleneck? Journal of Human Evolution, 45, 227-230.

Holloway, A. (23 September, 2014). Ten Amazing Artifacts from the Ancient World. Retrieved from ANCIENT ORIGINS: https://www.ancient-origins.net/artifacts-other-artifacts/ten-amazing-artifacts-ancient-world-002105

McCoy, D. (2016). The Viking Spirit: An Introduction to Norse Mythology and Religion. CreateSpace.

Othman Mohd. Yatim & Abdul Halim Nasir. 1990. Epigrafi Islam Terawal di Nusantara. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka

Simpson, G. G., & Dean, C. (2002). Arabidopsis, the Rosetta stone of flowering time? Science, 296(5566), 285-289.

Weule, G. (2018, October 27). Traders Cave Bone Hunting in Borneo Near Deep Skull. Retrieved June 15, 2020, from ABC Science: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-27/traders-cave-bone-hunting-in-borneo-near-deep-skull/10215358?nw=0